Michigan Integrative Musculoskeletal Health Core Center - Musculoskeletal disorders remain an enormous healthcare problem, accounting for more than fifty percent of chronic conditions in developed countries. The current financial landscape not only challenges investigator-led scientific programs but particularly threatens collaborative research given the lack of flexibility in individual budgets to offer routine assays with our scientific neighbors. The Michigan Integrative Musculoskeletal Health Core Center (MiMHC) will enable vertically integrative, multi-scale musculoskeletal science from molecular mechanisms to organismal function by increasing access to critical, specialized resources and expertise that are fundamental to the musculoskeletal research programs of 60 center investigators. The MiMHC is structured to be consistent with new healthcare initiatives at the University of Michigan aimed at promoting collaborations across disciplines and between basic scientists and clinicians to promote health by better understanding disease and injury mechanisms. The MiMHC not only enhances the capabilities of a group of outstanding musculoskeletal researchers but capitalizes on their collective talent through an Enrichment Program that will promote novel and emerging musculoskeletal research in cross-tissue interactions and sex- specific differences throughout the life course. An outreach program will create a rich community of musculoskeletal scientists through a novel monthly seminar series and the development of a novel communication platform that creates a virtual campus aimed at accelerating discussion, critical thinking, research reproducibility, and innovation. To accomplish these goals, an Administrative Core will be established to oversee core operations and three Resource Cores will provide Histological Assessments, Structural and Compositional Assessments, and Functional Assessments of all musculoskeletal tissues for the Research Community. The Resource Cores are hierarchically structured to facilitate mechanistic studies from the molecular-level through the organ-level. Access to the Resource Cores will be impactful to center investigators financially by centralizing core technologies for economy of science and scientifically by providing access to Core Directors who are experts in their field and who will provide guidance on the best choice of technologies, experimental design, and data interpretation. The UM environment is ideal for initiating and sustaining an innovative, collaborative venture aimed at advancing understanding of musculoskeletal health and disease.
The Michigan Integrative Musculoskeletal Health Core Center will advance healthcare by providing outstanding, state-of-the-art resources and training to enable, enhance, accelerate, and expand the high quality cutting edge research programs of our large well-funded research community. The enrichment program creates community and promotes inter-disciplinary scholarship to advance novel and emerging science focused on sex specific differences and interactions among musculoskeletal tissues.
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