Molecular Center of Health and Disease

Abstract Core A- Abstract The goal of the Molecular Center of Health and Disease (MCHD), a new Phase I COBRE, is to facilitate research under a central theme of molecular physiology to enhance the depth of education, mentorship, and training of researchers to generate unique opportunities to apply omics technology and computational biology across the health-disease continuum. While chronic diseases can be treated, an understanding of genetic susceptibility and molecular mechanisms involved in disease onset has the potential to halt progression and return an individual to a healthier state. The integration of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic datasets with physiological information using computational approaches can provide novel insight into the molecular, cellular, and overall physiology associated with the health-disease continuum. The MCHD will be comprised of multiple components including an administrative unit, education and mentoring programs, a pilot project program, two research cores, and three major project investigators. In particular, Core A- Administration, Education, and Mentoring will be charged with promoting the mission of the MCHD to facilitate the use of innovative approaches to study health, onset and progression of disease, and interaction with pathogens, with the goal of understanding the breadth of information from the molecular level to the whole organism. Core A will provide administrative support, coordinate activities of research cores (including Core B- Omics and Gene-Editing and Core C-Research Computing, Bioinformatics, and Biostatistics), coordinate governance activities (executive committee and internal and external advisory committees), develop and implement education and mentoring programs, facilitate the pilot project program; and work to promote collaboration with other IDeA supported programs (COBRE, INBRE, and IDeA-CTR). The broad objectives of the Core A are to: (1) establish and maintain an effective organizational and governance structure to support state-of-the-art cores essential for MCHD investigators to apply cutting edge omics and computational approaches to address important scientific questions related to the health and disease continuum; (2) promote a research environment that is creative, supportive,, collaborative and multidisciplinary by providing education in omics and computational approaches, supportive mentoring and research funding for major project and pilot project investigators; (3) identify and implement long-term strategies to maximize sustainability of the MCHD by seeking quality improvement, implementation of new technology for research innovation, recruitment of new faculty, and fostering important interactions with other IDeA program. In total, these aims will work synergistically to develop an innovative, state-of-the-art Phase I COBRE to strengthen institutional infrastructure, provide a robust research training and mentoring environment for early career investigators with the common goal of developing a better understanding of molecular underpinnings of health and chronic disease.