This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In recognition of the critical need to improve the health of South Carolina's citizens and as the State's second largest PUI, Winthrop University proposes to establish a distinctive biomedical research program to focus on major human health concerns. Over the next five years, Winthrop will invest $1.7 million of its own funds to accomplish this goal. Winthrop proposes six research projects focusing on: 1) examining repair mechanisms for cardiac tissue damage, 2) investigating potential mechanisms that regulate angiogenesis and cell motility in prostate cancer, 3) developing new spectroscopic tools to better understand a wide range of specific interactions between metals and molecules in living systems, 4) completing the structural analysis of a protein recently implicated in obesity development, 5) revealing the specific role that oncogenic proteins play in cancer progression by identifying the molecular regions that are critical to these processes, and 6) using bioinformatic techniques to project evolutionary pathways of the Hepatitis B virus. These six projects will be supported by: 1) a biomedical core laboratory facility that includes four new staff scientist positions, and 2) targeted mentorship to provide assistance, advice, and resources to meet individual project goals. Winthrop's molecular biomedical focus provides students with a multidisciplinary perspective that underpins and spans the range of South Carolina's regenerative medicine efforts. Advances in a molecular understanding of human disease processes provide the potential for significant progress in addressing critical problems affecting human health. Winthrop's focus provides tremendous overlap among projects, a multidisciplinary environment for training of students, and the synergistic development of a strong lab core. The specific objectives of Winthrop's program are to: 1) dramatically expand biomedical research capacity, 2) increase the competitiveness of faculty for external biomedical research funding, 3) establish a strong biomedical research infrastructure support core, 4) provide students with a strong interdisciplinary foundation in the biomedical sciences and with experience in biomedical research through the establishment of an integrated chemistry-biology biomedical science curriculum, 5) increase the number and the percentage of biology and chemistry graduates that enter biomedical research fields, and 6) recruit, train and mentor Winthrop's many current and future students from underrepresented groups to increase the number and the percentage of Winthrop female and minority graduates that enter the biomedical research profession.
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