Note to Editors: A public dedication ceremony is set for 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Oct. 17 and the open house and clinical research demonstrations are from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the south wing of the third floor of the Wardenburg Health Center on campus.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of Colorado at Boulder a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant to establish and maintain a General Clinical Research Center for teaching and conducting clinical research studies on humans.
The grant, which provides $1.6 million for the first year of the CU-Boulder facility, was approved by the NIH as a satellite facility to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center's Adult General Clinical Research Center in Denver. Located in the Wardenburg Health Center, the new CU-Boulder facility is slated to receive more than $1 million of additional funding per year through 2006, before being reevaluated for future funding.
The grant will be used to provide the facilities, clinical research personnel, equipment and supplies to conduct high-quality, original research on topics ranging from improving muscle strength and functional capability in older adults to identifying medications that block nicotine and alcohol addiction.
Other research currently supported by the new center includes determining the beneficial effects of aerobic exercise on the immune system of the elderly and the influence of hormone-replacement therapy on the arteries of post-menopausal women. Researchers additionally will study the influence of stress in impairing nervous system control of motor performance, and the effects of the nervous system in the regulation of body weight and the prevention of adult obesity.
"This will benefit the campus by providing a central resource for investigators to perform biomedical research on humans," said Professor Douglas Seals of the kinesiology and applied physiology department, who wrote and obtained the grant and is directing the new center. "It also will benefit postdoctoral students, graduate students and undergraduates by providing an excellent place for them to receive scientific training in performing clinical research."
In addition, it will be a service for community residents who want to participate in human biomedical research that can positively affect their health, he said. Twenty-nine specific clinical trials have been reviewed and approved by a scientific advisory committee at HSC, several of which are now underway at CU-Boulder.
"This grant will bring many different disciplines on campus together in one place," said CU-Boulder Chancellor Richard Byyny, who will host the dedication at 2 p.m. Oct. 17. Dr. Byyny, an M.D., said the clinical trials at CU-Boulder should enhance biomedical knowledge and most likely will provide new techniques to treat various disorders in the future.
The new General Clinical Research Center at CU-Boulder will be available for use by researchers from any of the four CU campuses. Currently the center supports research that is approved or in development from a number of CU-Boulder departments. These include kinesiology and applied physiology, molecular, cellular and developmental biology, psychology, anthropology and speech and hearing sciences, said Emily Edwards, administrative manager for the center.
CU-Boulder's General Clinical Research Center is housed in the south wing of the third floor at Wardenburg, said Edwards. The center includes a reception and nursing station, two examination rooms, four protocol rooms, a bionutrition office, exercise equipment, computer facilities, physician and nurses offices, a blood and tissue processing lab and two core labs.
The integrative physiology core laboratory - modeled after a similar lab at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester -- will provide technical support for measurements in four areas. They include autonomic-cardiovascular physiology, body composition, exercise physiology and energy balance, or metabolic rate.
The public is invited to attend a dedication ceremony at Wardenburg from 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and an open house featuring clinical research demonstrations from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 17. The event will take place in the south wing of the third floor in Wardenburg, located on the north side of Broadway and 18 Street.