The Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (MRDDRC) was established on August 1, 1988 and has been continuously funded with the last renewal of funding on August 1, 1998. The overall goals of the Baylor MRDDRC are to identify as many causes of mental retardation and developmental disabilities as possible, to prevent these disorders, and to provide interventional schemes that can improve the quality of life of afflicted individuals and ameliorate their disability whenever possible. The specific objectives are: 1) to enhance mental retardation activities at BCM by encouraging and focusing research efforts on etiology, diagnosis, prevention, pathogenesis and intervention of MRDD; 2) to continue to promote a multidisciplinary approach to MRDD research by improving interactions between Center investigators, and by continuing to develop and to apply leading edge technologies; 3) to enhance the productivity of project investigators through effective and efficient research core units and to facilitate translational research efforts by providing clinical research support; 4) to recruit new investigators into the field of MRDD research through scientific interactions with Center investigators and by providing the infrastructure for a multidisciplinary approach through the MRDDRC cores; and 5) to promote scientific and collaborative interactions with investigators outside Baylor who have demonstrated a major commitment to study and treat MRDD. The research projects will be supported by the Administrative Core (A), and by seven research cores: Genome Analysis, which includes FISH and Genome-Based Arrays (B), Gene Expression which includes Neuropathology, Confocal, RNA in situ, and MicroArray Expression (C), Tissue Culture (D), Clinical Research (E), Mouse Genetic Engineering, which includes Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell and Mouse Microinjection (F), Mouse Neurobehavior (G), and Mouse Physiology (H). There are 53 faculty participants, including 46 research project investigators and 83 research projects. The scope of research at the BCM MRDDRC will include the following eleven topic areas: 1) neurobiology, cellular and molecular aspects of brain development, 2) inborn errors of metabolism, 3) genetic and epigenetic basis of diseases, 4) innovative technologies for diagnosis & screening MRDD, 5) animal models for pathogenesis & therapeutic intervention, 6) pathways that affect function of nervous system, 7) molecular, behavioral & therapeutic studies in MR syndrome, 8) clinical trials, 9) infectious diseases, 10) methods to define clinical phenotypes, and 11) studies of Autism & Autism Spectrum disorders. ? ?
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