The Clinical Core of this proposal is an essential and integral part of the Memphis Cooperative Hepatitis C Research Center, without which the basic science projects would not be feasible. The projects utilize materials through the collaboration with one or more of the other groups, provided by the Clinical Core. Based on this, one could argue that the most important part of our Center is the Clinical Core. The strength of our Clinical Core is the ability of Drs. Fleckenstein and Riely and our nurse coordinator, Ms. Anne Madey, to recruit and retain AA patients. While no funds are requested to support patient treatment, the Clinical Core will continue to provide other tissue samples for the analyses detailed in Projects 1 and 2. One of the major limitation into research that could lead to an understanding of the difference in response to therapy between AA and non AA is the relatively low numbers of AA included in most studies to date. As a single center, we have been enormously successful in recruiting AA patients and obtaining materials for our studies. While the basic science projects are absolutely dependent upon the Clinical Core to provide the necessary patient samples to complete the proposed studies, the Clinical Core is also dependent upon the research projects to support and justify the need to recruit patients that meet criteria important to the research projects within the guidelines of NIH mandated Human Use Policy. Activities of the Clinical Core will also be supported by the UTHSC General Clinical Research Center without which all of the necessary laboratory tests required for each patient would be difficult to acquire.
