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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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