The Research Core plays a major role in the planning and coordination of resources, equipment, and investigations to be performed in the Burn Trauma Center. The areas of research being studied by the Burn Trauma Center are complimentary and because the senior investigators have worked together effectively and productively in the past, the proposed investigations pose an unusual opportunity to utilize the considerable benefits of a common core facility which are the following: 1) use of shared major equipment; 2) standardization of commonly used research protocols and procedures; 3) a unified, very experienced clinical research staff allowing careful quality control and attention to safety and comfort issues in all human studies; 4) centralized preparation, quality control, and attention to the animal welfare aspects of animal models; 5) standardized performance and quality control of bioassay, biochemical, molecular, metabolic, and immunochemical techniques for all in vitro, human and animal studies. The Research Core provides the centralized focus, eliminates duplication, insures quality and attention to detail. Further, the Research Core provides a central and effective mechanism to oversee and coordinate studies insuring that the research groups and projects involved in the studies are, in fact, all focused on the same problem, at the same time in the same patient or animal. In addition the Research Core personnel involved in the human studies insure patient comfort, patient safety, as well as study accuracy. We have developed an efficient system over the past years of Burn Trauma Center to obtain a high degree of effectiveness in the areas noted above using the Research Core as the central focus of all collaborative studies. Our experience with this system demonstrates that we have been able to utilize resources to advantage achieving a higher reproducibility, equipment utilization, and specialized investigator skills working as a Burn Trauma Center than would be expected in research projects in isolation. The Research Core therefore, although not containing research projects in itself, is of key importance to patient safety, animal welfare, and overall accuracy, efficiency and productivity of our Burn Trauma Center.
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