The overall aim of the Developmental Core is to attract new investigators and to foster novel pilotstudies and approaches to neuroAIDS questions, based on sophisticated hypotheses and methods, as wellas quality pilot data, requisite to the development of project proposals that are sufficiently competitive tosecure extramural funding. In the current funding cycle, through its Developmental Grants program, theDevelopmental Core has awarded 16 developmental grants, all encompassing promising new directions inneuroAIDS research, to students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior and senior faculty, including aninternational fellow from Brazil. In addition, 16 junior researchers have received support through theMentored Investigator Program, and 74 trainees of various levels have rotated through labs of the HNRCassociated investigators. This seed funding has so far produced 12 investigator-initiated peer reviewproposals, 7 of which have been funded to date. Trainees working with the HNRC investigators have co-authored83 original project publications (and an additional 7 in submission); 7 book chapters, and 67conference presentations.
Our aims for the renewal are to augment synergistically the capacity andeffectiveness of the Developmental Grants and Mentored Investigator Programs via (1) crossover activitieswith the newly proposed International Core, designed for mentoring international investigators andenhancing the potential for extramural support of innovative international research or projects; and (2),submission of an NIH T32 training program for pre- and postdoctoral neuroAIDS researchers at the HNRCand its affiliate laboratories, aimed toward attracting top-notch trainees (in particular, underrepresentedminorities) and promoting careers in the neurobehavioral and neuromedical sciences. With itsmultidisciplinary research environment, talented and productive research staff, highly organized andintegrated infrastructure, and rich longitudinal specimen and data banks, the HNRC is well-positioned todevelop and support expanded opportunities for innovative research by fostering preliminary studies andmentoring of trainees from a wide array of disciplines.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 743 publications
