The overall goals of the CURE: DDRCC Human Studies Core (HSC) are to provide leadership and an infrastructure to enhance clinical and translational research in digestive diseases. This is implemented by providing specific services to CURE investigators with research grants, their trainees, and collaborators. The specific goals of the Human Studies Core are to provide CURE:DDRCC members, trainees, and their collaborators with access to: 1) expert researchers and their staff in clinical, endoscopic, translational, and outcomes research for assistance and advice about cognitive, technical and procedural aspects of these types of gastrointestinal (Gl) research; 2) facilitate utilization of fully equipped and networked endoscopy medical procedure units (MPU's) for GI clinical, physiologic and translational research studies; 3) teaching clinical research techniques and consultation about study design, data management, software options, statistical analysis, and routine outcomes of prospective randomized controlled studies of large multicenter or cooperative trials for diagnosis or treatments in Gl disorders; 4) expertise, utilization, and collaboration with PI'S and their research staff who maintain tissue, cyst fluid, sera and other bio-specimens and HIPAA compliant databases of clinical patients with selected Gl diseases (e.g. obesity, Gl hemorrhage, small bowel disorders, pancreatic pre-cancerous conditions, Barrett's epithelium with and without dysplasia, Gl mucosal inflammatory diseases -AIDS or IBD - and neuroenteric or functional Gl diseases); and 5) expertise and utilization of specialized equipment for Gl intra-luminal studies in collaboration with experts, including deep enteroscopy and capsule endoscopy for small bowel. There are 18 investigators who will utilize these core services at UCLA and VA. This has been a unique and successful core that has provided services in the last 5 years to 20 funded users and 19 pre and post doctoral trainees. This core has facilitated their academic careers by enhancing collaborative research, providing services to develop research results that contributed to funding of several important federal grants, and contributed to significant research publications related to Gl disorders.
Our goals are to improve understanding, knowledge, and treatment of Gl disorders in a cost-effective and collaborative approach. Using patients and human samples to study pathogenesis and treatments increases the relevance to human diseases. The Human Studies Core space, equipment, expertise, and personnel required to provide these services are expensive but are shared for collaborative research with clinical, outcomes and translational researchers and their trainees in a cost-effective way.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 1097 publications
