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Xavier
University of Louisiana.
Xavier University is the only university in the United States
that is both Black and Catholic. The University dates back
to 1915 when Mother Catherine Drexel from the Sisters of Blessed
Sacrament founded the co-educational secondary school from
which it evolved. In 1927, a College of Pharmacy was opened.
Xavier is a predominantly minority institution that historically
has placed a greater percentage of its graduates in professional
schools of law and medicine than any other university of its
kind. According to the U.S. Dept. of Education, Xavier continues
to rank first nationally in the number of African American
students earning undergraduate degrees in biology, physics
and physical sciences. Xavier College of Pharmacy is number
one in the nation in Pharmacy degrees all awarded to African
Americans. Since 1927, the College of Pharmacy is graduating
nearly 25% of the 6,500 Black pharmacists practicing in the
United States. In 1994, the College expanded its curriculum
to confer only the Dr. of Pharmacy as its professional degree.
Additionally, in premedical education, Xavier is the first
in the Nation in placing African American students in medical
schools. The Interim Dean of the College of Pharmacy, Dr.
Robert Thomas, is a member of the CRCA Internal Review Committee
and a consultant to the CRCA Program.
NIH
Tulane-LSU General Clinical Research Center (GCRC).
The GCRC was begun in 1990 under the auspices of funding from
the NIH General Clinical Research Centers Program. It is housed
at Charity Hospital, contiguous with Tulane Medical School
on the east side and LSU Medical Center on the west side.
The Program Director, Dr. Juan Lertora, is also Director of
the NIH AIDS Clinical Trial Unit and a CRCA Core Faculty member.
The Center involves full interdisciplinary cooperation between
the three local major medical institutions: Tulane University
Medical Center, Louisiana State University Medical Center
and Charity Hospital whose facility is shared for teaching
and service purposes with both Medical Schools. The specific
aims of the GCRC are to provide resources and environment
to allow quality inpatient and outpatient care for adult and
pediatric patients who are subjects of research projects within
the framework of the overall Tulane-LSU-Charity Hospital Medical
Complex, and to provide training in the methodology and design
of excellent clinical research projects. The GCRC is structurally
composed of 10 beds for inpatient research. Within this bed
unit is a special area for a study of subjects with contagious
diseases and AIDS consisting of rooms with special filters
and infection control equipment and facilities. A large outpatient
area is present directly adjacent to the inpatient unit. The
outpatient unit contains additional examining rooms with beds
and several recliners for certain outpatient research studies
such as administration of IV regional perfusion, and chemotherapy
which is performed in an adjacent room. Another area within
the GCRC is the Core Laboratory. This laboratory is used for
the performance of metabolic, radio immunoassay procedures
and PCR and other molecular biology procedures. The GCRC Core
Laboratory is directed by Dr. Sanda Clejan, who will also
be directing the component of the CRCA seminar series, "Introduction
to Clinical Pathology". The clinical research program
within the GCRC includes protocols from such widely diverse
departments as medicine, pediatrics, ophthalmology, biomedical
engineering, psychiatry/neurology, surgery, pathology, oncology,
infectious diseases, nursing, pharmacology, public health
and others. The entire facility is used strictly for clinical
research projects approved by the GCRC Advisory Committee
and staffed by M.D. and Ph.D. faculty of both medical schools,
as well as selected medical house-staff or residents, rotating
medical students, and graduate students and fellows. There
were 722 inpatient days and 5968 outpatient visits in the
GCRC last year representing 92 faculty clinical investigators
with 117 active protocols.
Dr. Friedman (PI of the
CRCA) is the Associate Program Director (Tulane) for the GCRC
and his primary responsibility is coordinating the educational
and training functions of the GCRC. During the recent successful
competitive renewal for the GCRC grant, the training component
was ranked as "Excellent."
Clinical
Research Organization of New Orleans (CRONOS). CRONOS
is a newly established autonomous clinical trials unit, designed
to carry out studies necessary for FDA approvals. CRONOS,
in large part, evolved from the NIH-funded Tulane-LSU GCRC
and is a combined effort of the clinical faculties at LSU
Health Sciences Center, Tulane University Medical Center,
and Xavier College of Pharmacy. CRONOS is situated in space
immediately adjacent to the GCRC on the fifth floor of the
Charity Hospital. Inpatient beds and facilities for outpatient
studies are available.
Tulane
Center for Infectious Diseases (CID). Based on its
international reputation in Infectious Diseases including
research in tropical medicine and infectious diseases, its
strengths in AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and vaccine research,
clinical excellence, and unique patient population, Tulane
University established the CID in 1998. The goal of the CID,
directed by Dr. Donald Krogstad (CRCA Internal Advisory Committee
member), is to enhance research on infectious disease issues
of interest to the entire Tulane University Medical Center.
The area of greatest relevance to the CRCA Program is the
translational clinical research component of the CID which
presently interacts with the GCRC and the Primate Center.
One current example of this process is the development of
aminoquinolines for treatment of otherwise drug-resistant
malaria based on compounds which were initially synthesized
and characterized at Tulane University, first tested in vivo
at the Primate Center and now entering Phase I studies in
humans at the GCRC. In basic research, priority areas include
the host response to HIV infection, and emerging viruses,
with the construction of a Level 4 research space at the Primate
Center. In clinical investigation, priority areas include
the treatment of HIV infection, nosocomial infection and travel
medicine. In public health, the priority areas are immunization
in the inner city, and the impact of maternal infection on
the fetus. The CID is located in the J. Bennett Johnston Building
encompassing the entire 5th floor and was established with
a $2.1 million endowment. Total research funding is $1.8 million.
The
AIDS Clinical Trials Units. A large AIDS unit is housed
mainly in Charity Hospital's facilities. It contains clinical
evaluation teams, a pharmacology team, an immunology team,
several virology teams and key diagnostic laboratory personnel.
The unit is concerned with the study and assessment of the
safety and toxicity of candidate drugs and immune response
modifiers like interleukin-2 for the treatment of HIV infection
in AIDS patients. Since 1996, 362 patients have been enrolled
in the clinical trials. Approximately 35% were female, 35%
African?American and 11% Hispanic. Of the 128 females enrolled
to date, 69% were African?American and about 8% were Hispanic.
Tulane
Cancer Center (TCC). The TCC was established in 1993
with a $9 million investment in facilities and program support
by Tulane University. The TCC Director is Dr. Roy Weiner (Associate
Program Director/Co-Investigator of the CRCA). The TCC offers
a complete range of services including prevention and early
detection, treatment, rehabilitation, and continuing care.
The clinical facility provides space for radiation oncology,
an outpatient infusion center, outpatient bone marrow transplant,
multidisciplinary outpatient clinics, and psychosocial support
services. TCC has already had several notable successes: It
has pioneered a new treatment for localized prostate cancer
that reduces pain and shorten hospitalization (Dr. Andrew
Schally our Nobel laureate and Dr. Anna Maria Schally a GCRC
investigator); it has also pioneered novel therapeutic efforts
using bone marrow transplantation; and it provides clinical
trials, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (i.e.,
SWOG, RTOG, NSAP, GOG, POG) and investigator initiated clinical
research using the GCRC. The TCC has an Office of Clinical
Research which coordinates and manages all cancer clinical
trials at Tulane. The TCC also has clinical research agreements
with 11 community practices along the Gulf Coast. More than
180 patients were accrued to clinical trials in 2000. The
research of the TCC are organized into three programs (Signal
Transduction in Cancer, Cancer Genetics and Gene Therapy,
and Environmental and Viral Carcinogenesis). In addition,
the TCC provides training for 6 clinical fellows in Medical
Hematology/Oncology and 2 clinical fellows in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
and 2 surgical oncology trainees via a NIH-sponsored T-32
Surgical Oncology Training Grant (The PI is Dr. Bernard Jaffe,
a CRCA Internal Advisory Committee member). There are 29 funded
basic and clinical science investigators in the TCC with a
total of $3.8 million in NIH research grants.
The
NIH-Funded Specialized Center of Research in Atherosclerosis.
This large Center, located within the Tulane School of Public
Health, has been operational for many years and has made major
advances in our understanding of the natural history and progression
of atherosclerosis from childhood to old age. A main component
of this Center is the widely recognized "Bogalusa Project"
of Dr. Gerald Berenson in which citizens of this small Louisiana
town have been followed from early childhood through their
adult years for monitoring of lipid profiles and risk factors
associated with development of atherosclerosis and coronary
disease. This longstanding Bogalusa Heart Study Program is
funded by the NIH at $870,000/year.
TSPHTM
Hypertension Program. With the recruitment of Dr. Paul
Whelton to Tulane, where he now serves as the Senior Vice-President
for the Health Sciences, an internationally recognized program
in hypertension is now in place and active at Tulane. The
studies include the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment
to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT), which is a randomized,
double-blind, active-controlled trial of 42,448 participants
that is sponsored by the NHLBI. Dr. Paul Whelton is Principal
Investigator for one of the nine ALLHAT Regional Coordination
Offices (Mid-Atlantic States Region), providing clinical center
monitoring/oversite for 64 of the 625 ALLHAT Clinical Sites.
ALLHAT is designed to determine whether the incidence of the
primary outcome - a composite of fatal coronary heart disease
(CHD) and nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI) - differs between
treatment with a diuretic and treatment with each of three
other types of antihypertensive drugs in high-risk hypertensive
persons aged 55 years and older. Other ongoing projects include
studies investigating lifestyle factors, including dietary
nutrients (high sodium, low potassium, low vegetable protein,
and low water-soluble fiber), overweight, physical inactivity,
and alcohol consumption as risk factors for hypertension in
over 20,000 study participants living in Southwestern China.
The total research support for this program is $3.8 million.
In addition to these programs,
significant research is being done on the basic level in the
Departments of Medicine and Physiology in hypertension. Together
these 2 Departments have more than a dozen current national
grants (NIH, VA, and NASA). These are currently being integrated
into a multidisciplinary Clinical and Research Hypertension
Center, led by Dr. Hamm, a CRCA Internal Advisory Committee
member.
The
Tulane Peptide Cancer Research Center. This research
center was dedicated in honor of Dr. Andrew Schally, our Nobel
Laureate at Tulane University Medical Center. Dr. Schally
heads this Center which is housed at the VA Hospital. The
well equipped laboratories of the Center have always been
primarily concerned with the preparation and development of
LHRH and somatostatin analogs in the treatment of endocrine-dependent
breast, ovarian, prostate, pancreatic and other related tumors.
Dr. Schally participates with investigators throughout the
world in conducting clinical trials of many of his synthetic
peptides which are also used in patients with several of the
above mentioned diseases at the GCRC.
The Lindy Boggs Biotechnical and
Energy Center. This Center is located on the main Tulane
University campus. The Center contains projects that are relevant
to the CRCA clinical research program. These include, e.g.,
comparison of recording of lung breath sounds to physiologic
data obtained by pulmonary function testing and design and
placement of percutaneous electrodes in electroencephalography.
The Center also carries out many other predominantly biomedical
projects including many related to engineering innovations
for the handicapped and the biomechanics of several bony joint
surfaces. The interchange between the BME faculty of the Boggs
Center and our CRCA will result in the application of many
of these innovative engineering model studies to the CRCA
Clinical Research Program.
Tulane
Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women's Health.
The Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women's
Health (TUXCOE) is one of the 17 nationally designated Women's
Centers by the Office on Women's Health (DHHS). TUXCOE is
a collaborative effort of Tulane University Medical Center,
Tulane University Hospital, and Xavier, Loyola, and Dillard
Universities. It is directed by Jeannette Magnus, M.D., Ph.D.
who is also a member of the CRCA Internal Advisory Committee.
The Center incorporates the clinical, academic, and educational
missions of these institutions into a community network. The
5 major components of the Center as designated by DHHS are:1)
clinical services that are provided as a deliver model using
a "center without walls" approach onsite and in
satellite locations; 2) a multidisciplinary research agenda
to achieve a fuller understanding of women's health issues;
3) health professional education, including training as part
of an integrated women's health curriculum in medical education;
4) community outreach to provide consumer education and information
on women's health within the surrounding communities; and
5) a leadership plan of strategies to foster the recruitment,
retention, and promotion of women in academic medicine.
Tulane
Center for Clinical Effectiveness and Prevention. This
is a new program that is a joint collaboration for the Tulane
School of Medicine and the TSPHTM. It is directed by Dr. William
C. Steinmann, a member of the CRCA core faculty. The Program
is targeted primarily to individuals who are interested in
clinical investigative careers in clinical epidemiology. The
program is open both to students in the School of Public Health
as well as those obtaining joint MD/MPH degrees.
The
Hayward Human Genetics Center. This Center, located
on the fifth floor of the main Tulane Medical School building
is headed by Jess Thoene, M.D. It is primarily concerned with
genetic diseases and counseling of patients, particularly
children with many forms of inherited diseases referred to
the Center by maternal and child health programs, handicapped
children services, and family planning programs locally and
elsewhere. A prominent long-standing NIH contract study carried
out at the Center is concerned with the effects of maternal
phenylketonuria (PKU) on pregnancy outcome. The Center provides
counseling and clinical evaluation for referred patients,
chromosome studies of patients, amniotic fluid analyses from
prenatal patients, biochemical testing for a variety of genetic
disorders, and follow-up educational services. Dr. Thoene
is a member of the CRCA Internal Advisory Committee.
Tulane
Gene Therapy Program. The Tulane Center for Gene Therapy
is under the directorship of Darwin J. Prockop, MD, PhD. Dr.
Prockop has a distinguished career and his pioneering research
is recognized throughout the world. He has been honored by
his peers in many ways, including election to the National
Academy of Science, two honorary degrees, and the Lee C. Howley
Prize from the Arthritis Foundation for research on arthritis.
The Center develops new therapies for a series of common diseases
that include osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, parkinsonism, spinal
cord injury, stroke and Alzheimer's disease. The primary strategy
of the Center is to use adult stem cells that can easily be
obtained from a patient and then used for therapy in the same
patient. The Center will also provide educational programs
for career development, job training and life long learning
of citizens; establish a forum to evaluate the social, legal
and ethical implications of gene therapy; and develop commercial
applications of gene therapy with an emphasis on commercial
developments within the State of Louisiana. The Center is
supported by research funds from the federal government via
National Institutes of Health grants, from the state of Louisiana
via the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium and the
Louisiana Board of Regents, from the Tulane University Health
Sciences Center, the HCA - Healthcare Company and several
private foundations. The Center is a major participant in
the Louisiana Gene Therapy Research Consortium that includes
gene therapy centers at the LSU Health Sciences Centers in
New Orleans and in Shreveport. The Center was launched with
a staff of 15 who moved with Dr. Prockop from Philadelphia.
It now has a staff of over 30 with plans to increase the staff
to about 50 within the next year or two. The Center is housed
in 14,000 sq. ft. of modern laboratory space in the Tulane
University Health Sciences Center's J. Bennett Johnston Building.
The
Cystic Fibrosis Center. This long-standing clinical
Center at Tulane University Medical School is designated as
a core teaching and clinical research center by the Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation which funds this Center. It has a base
of over 500 patients. Investigator for both pediatric and
adult cystic fibrosis patients, Dr. Friedman, is also the
Associate Director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program.
The
Comprehensive Hemophilia Care Center (CHCC). This Center
is headed by Dr. Cindy Leissinger, a TCC investigator, and
located at Tulane University Medical Center Hospital. The
Center concentrates on treatment of hemophilia and has closely
interacted with the Pediatric AIDS Center. The CHCC investigators,
working partly out of the GCRC, were among the first in the
country to perform in depth studies of AIDS in hemophiliac
patients.
Ernest
N. Morial Asthma, Allergy and Respiratory Disease Center.
This Center is part of LSU Medical Center, adjacent to Charity
Hospital, and is one of only four state designated Centers.
The faculty of the Center have in excess of one million dollars
in NIH direct grant funding annually. Participants in the
Center have also been active in 59 NIH and pharmaceutically
sponsored multicenter clinical trials. It is the central focus
of this facility to conduct innovative research combining
the talents of both basic and clinical scientists in order
to develop cutting edge treatments or discover the means to
prevent or cure asthma. Dr. Dwayne Thomas, is the Center's
Director and directs with Dr. Friedman (PI of the CRCA) an
asthma management program at Charity Hospital.
The
Center for Applied Environmental Public Health. The
Center for Applied Environmental Public Health (CAEPH) leads
the distance education programs at the TSPHTM. CAEPH has pioneered
work in the integration of computing and communication technologies
as delivery tools and in the development and evaluation of
teaching methods and materials to optimize learning in distance
education. CAEPH is one of the first to fully integrate computing
capabilities and communication technology.
The
U.S.-Japan Biomedical Research Center and Laboratories for
Molecular Neuroendocrinology and Diabetes (LMNED).
This is a large research center on 500 acres of ground located
about a 10 minute ride from the Tulane University Medical
Center and is directed by Akira Arimura, M.D., Ph.D. The Center
is funded jointly by NIH grants and private Japanese sources.
It focuses on isolation, synthesis and characterization of
neuroendocrine peptides that interact with the hypothalamic
pituitary axis. A major NIH funded project within this center
is a clinical trial of P.A.C.E.P. (Adenyl cyclase acting peptide)
in patients with acute cerebral vascular accidents. Other
prominent projects at the center relate to the effects of
certain cytokines on hormone release by the hypothalamic pituitary
axis and studies of other PACEP-like peptides that appear
to be essential for nerve growth and studies related to the
isolation, characterization and biologic activity of gonadal
polypeptide.
Centralized
Tulane Imaging Center (CTIC). This Center offers Computerized
Imaging and flow cytometry analysis to Tulane staff for a
nominal fee and is located on the 6th floor of Tulane Medical
School. The CTIC houses: a) a two laser ELITE Coulter Cytometer;
b) an IX70 Olympus top-of-the-line inverted microscope; c)
a BH2 upright microscope with phase contrast, Normanski, fluorescent
and bright modes; d) 1100x1300 pixel digital SPOT camera attached
to a Pentium computer with PhotoShop and Image-Pro imaging
software; and e) VoxBlast 3-D reconstruction and Microtome
II digital deconvolution (digital confocal) plus peripheral
components for publication quality output. There is also analog
color imaging and pixel analysis. Dr. Cesar Fermin is the
Director.
South
Central Public Health Leadership Institute. The South
Central Public Health Leadership Institute (SCPHLI), implemented
in the fall of 1995, is the first regional collaboration offering
leadership development and enhancement for practicing public
health professionals. It is a joint effort between TSPHTM
and the state offices of public health of Alabama, Arkansas,
Louisiana and Mississippi, and Texas. SCPHLI is a year?long
program with three on?site sessions per year. The Institute
is directed to experienced public health professionals who
are currently in positions of leadership with supervisory,
programmatic, and/or fiscal responsibilities within public
health programs. The Institute is supported in part by a grant
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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