The long-term objective of The Ohio State University Child Health Research Center (OSU-CHRC) is to train new pediatric physician-scientists. Because of rapid advances in biomedical sciences during the past decade, there is a pressing need to speed the transfer of basic science discoveries to clinical applications that will benefit the health of children. As a large, multidisciplinary Department of Pediatrics at a hospital devoted solely to the care of children, we are ideally positioned to further this cause. The scientific theme of the OSU-CHRC will be molecular medicine in pediatrics. In this era of highly sophisticated molecular approaches to diagnosis and treatment of human diseases, it is the utmost importance that children benefit directly from scientific breakthroughs. Thus, the OSU-CHRC will train and support physician-scientists who use molecular approaches to further our understanding of diseases that affect children. A highly qualified faculty of 16 Established Investigators have joined the OSU-CHRC to serve as mentors for new pediatrician-scientists. These Established Investigators represent 13 distinct Departments and Programs from 3 separate Colleges at The Ohio State University. Thus, a key feature of the Center is its linkage to other Departments and Colleges throughout the University. All of the Established Investigators are supported by NIH or other competitively awarded grants. Collectively, the faculty have published over 400 manuscripts since 1990, and have mentored over 200 (past and current) pre-and post-doctoral (M.D. and Ph.D.) trainees. The research interests of the faculty are broad-based but have the common them of molecular approaches to problems relevant to health of children. The commitment of Children's Hospital and OSU to the OSU-CHRC is very strong and tangible. The institutions are contributing resources well in excess of the requested direct costs for the OSU-CHRC by reducing indirect cost charges, matching funds for research supplies and salaries, purchasing equipment for the Core Laboratory, and funding an invited speaker series. Considered together, these circumstances strongly support the notion that the Children's Hospital/OSU is an emerging center of excellence in pediatric research. Thus, it seems highly appropriate at this time to form the OSU-CHRC to provide support and mentoring for promising new physician- scientists interested in the health problems of children.
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