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NPRCs help celebrate science at USA Science and Engineering Festival

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Diana Gordon, education outreach specialist for the Oregon National Primate Research Center, explains the effects of second-hand smoke to a student at the USA Science Engineering Festival from April 27 to April 29 in Washington D.C.

Representatives from the National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs) spoke to an estimated 4,000 people who visited the NPRC booth at the 2nd annual USA Science and Engineering Festival from April 27 to April 29 in Washington D.C.

Billed as “the largest celebration of science in the U.S.,” the festival featured more than 3,000 interactive exhibits, more than 100 stage shows and 33 author presentations. More than 150,000 people attended. President Barack Obama attended a special event at the festival on April 27 to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

The NPRC booth included a flip board with answers to common questions about animal research and a set of pig lungs (healthy and “smoker’s”) to demonstrate the effects of second-hand smoke on lung development. The booth also supplied NPRC bookmarks and information on all eight NPRCs.

The booth was staffed by: Kathy West and Keidri Herring, California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC); Diana Gordon and Steve Gordon (spouse), Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) ; and Jordana Lenon, Wisconson National Primate Research Center (WNPRC).  Other NPRCs including the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) helped organize the booth as part of the NPRC Consortium Outreach Working Group.

“We had many positive comments and interested visitors, and a number of people specifically thanked us for the NPRCs’ research efforts,” West said.

Special visitors to the festival included: The Myth Busters; Arne Duncan Secretary of Education; Bill Nye, the science guy; best-selling authors; astronauts; Nobel Prize-winner Carol Greider; and a rock guitar performance by Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director.

Center hosts ‘Animals and the Future’ exhibit at UW’s PAWS-on-Science activities

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The Center’s Division of Global Programs hosted an exhibit titled “Animals and the Future” at the UW’s “PAWS-on-Science” outreach activities from March 30 to April 1 at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle.

The exhibit included information for children on methods used to study animals in the wild and included hands-on activities with some of the equipment and techniques used by researchers in the field. Children had opportunities to learn about radio telemetry, GPS, trap cameras, and biological sample collection.

“The exhibit demonstrated the close relationship between humans and the environment and how animals can provide the first indication of future environmental impact and global health issues,” said Randy Kyes, head of the division and WaNPRC core staff scientist.

“One of the exhibit activities that was a real hit involved a hands-on demonstration of primate fecal sample collection to look for intestinal parasites,” Kyes said. “Of course no real fecal samples were used, but the fake ‘pooh’ attracted a lot of interest.”

Close to 10,000 people attended the three-day outreach event which showcased almost 50 UW research groups.

Deadline to apply for ITHS/WaNPRC Ignition Award is Feb. 17

The Institute of Translational Health Science (ITHS) and the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) are pleased to sponsor an Ignition Award, focusing on the use of nonhuman primate models of human disease. The purpose of this Ignition Award is to explore innovative areas of nonhuman primate research and generate preliminary data to serve as a basis for submission of new research grant applications (e.g. R01-type grant to NIH or other funding agency) and/or subsequent clinical studies.  Please pay close attention to the submission instructions and due dates, as there are several important differences from the standard ITHS opportunities.

Key Dates:

  • Feb 17, 2012 – Full application due to the WaNPRC
  • April 2, 2012 – Notice to awardees and other applicants
  • May 1, 2012 – Budget initiation

All faculty members or those with equivalent titles are eligible to apply.
Note:  All applicants must join ITHS prior to submitting an application.

The WaNPRC intends to award one or two separate awards of up to $75,000 for one year.  These funds must be used for Primate Center costs only, including animal costs, per diem, and procedures.  Costs of supplies and salaries must be administered by the Primate Center.

Purpose

This program is designed to support innovative studies utilizing resources within the WaNPRC. Nonhuman primates are the preeminent animal model of the human condition. This award program will facilitate use of NHP models and services of the WaNPRC and resources within the ITHS to provide information applicable to subsequent grant and/or clinical studies. This program will advance research programs through the translational process of therapeutics, diagnostics or device development.

Examples of types of projects include, but are not limited to:

1.   The development of clinical tests/diagnostics/therapeutics that have the potential to

a.    speed translational research (i.e., new outcome measures)

b.    develop highly relevant model systems

c.    improve clinical treatments (i.e., new therapeutics or new indications for approved drugs)

2.   Advanced neuroscience applications

3.   Reproductive / developmental studies

Eligibility and review criteria

All faculty members (or those with equivalent titles) are eligible to apply, except those who have received an ITHS/Primate Center Ignition Award within the previous three years.

Applicants are encouraged to contact the WaNPRC [Ann Schmidt (Research Liasion) or Pat Jobe (Pre-Award Aide)] at: PrimateITHS@wanprc.org to discuss the scientific components of their projects and general costs of the services to be provided.  Complete budgets are required for the Full Applications and must be developed in collaboration with the WaNPRC. The budgets for the NHP studies may only be used for costs within the WaNPRC.

  1. It is the PI’s responsibility to clearly demonstrate how the proposed research has the potential to positively impact the quality or the conduct of clinical and translational research.
  2. The PI should clearly describe how the proposed evaluation methodology provides an innovative approach to conducting the proposed research.
  3. Up to $75,000 per selected applicant will be directly applied to the costs at the WaNPRC.
  4. No additional funds will be provided for indirect costs.  The budgets associated with these awards will be administered by the WaNPRC.

Anyone in the WWAMI region is eligible to apply, provided that all costs are incurred at the Primate Center.

Review committee

The combined Research Review Committee (RRC) for the Ignition Award applications will consist of members of the WaNPRC, and the ITHS Drug and Device Advisory Committee (DDAC).  Members of the committee are selected to provide interdisciplinary insight into the proposed research.  The committee is composed of core and affiliate scientists.  If potential conflict of interest exists, ad hoc members will be appointed.

As needed, the WaNPRC will also invite representation from the Technology Transfer Office of the applicants’ institution for guidance on innovation represented by the technology.

Note: In order to expedite the review and award of the NHP Ignition awards, the WaNPRC has instituted an accelerated review process for this announcement.  There is only one review step – the fullapplication.  No pre-application process is involved.

Full applications will be critiqued and scored by the RRC. It is anticipated that the projects with the lowest score/highest priority will be funded. Based on funding levels, it is anticipated that two or three projects will be funded during this 2012 review cycle.
Reviews are performed according to the following standards:

  1. Applicability to the WaNPRC and ITHS missions
  2. Scientific merit
  3. Proposed activities conducted on site at the WaNPRC
  4. Innovation
  5. Potential impact on human health
  6. Probability of future grant funding and/or clinical studies

Application form and process

Key Dates:

Feb 17, 2012 – Full application due to the WaNPRC

April 2, 2012 – Notice to awardees and other applicants

May 1, 2012 – Budget initiation

Step 1 – Submit the full application to WaNPRC by February 17, 2012 (PrimateITHS@wanpr.org).

Step 2 – Review of Applications

Reviews are performed utilizing the standards described above

Applicants will be notified of their status by April 2, 2012.

Investigators are offered assistance with their applications and budgets by WaNPRC staff, including Ann Schmidt and Pat Jobe.  They can be contacted via PrimateITHS@wanprc.org

Step 3 – 2012 Awardees

Budget period is anticipated to begin May 1, 2012 and must be spent by April 30, 2013. There will not be any no-cost extensions.
All final applicants will receive a detailed critique of their application

Unsuccessful applicants may resubmit their applications for the next round up to a total of two (2) times.  The RRC may deny the opportunity to resubmit an application if the reviewers determine the application does not meet the intent of the program.

Reporting requirements

Ignition Awards are an investment in translational research to improve human health. Meetings with ITHS representatives to assess the effective utilization of ITHS resources and required progress and results reporting are important aspects that aid in evaluating the success of this funding mechanism.

ITHS and WaNPRC each have specific requirements for reporting.

The ITHS requires the following reports and presentations:

  • Pre-award meeting with the DDAC to establish other ITHS resources that would benefit your program.
  • A brief semi-annual progress report to the ITHS Center for Scientific Review during the award period, and subsequent annual reports to track impact of the funding.
  • Annual report and presentation to DDAC.

The WaNPRC requires an annual report to be included with the grant report to sponsor.

Quarterly in-person meetings with an ITHS representative may be requested to track the progress of funded activities.

Publicity

The WaNPRC and the ITHS reserve the right to publicly disclose information about their granting activities. ITHS communications to the public may include lists of funded applications, the names of principal investigators and applicant institutions and departments, titles of proposed activities and reports about progress and outcomes. Please note that records produced at the University of Washington are subject to the Washington State Public Records Act, Chapter 42.56 RCW

Contact

For more information regarding the application process, please contact:

Preclinical Research Development Network  – ithsprdn@u.washington.edu

WaNPRC staff Ann Schmidt or Pat Jobe – PrimateITHS@wanprc.org

NCRR dissolved; WaNPRC now part of NIH Office of the Director

The appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2012 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on Dec. 23, 2011. The bill includes provisions that formally establish the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) as a new component of the NIH. This is an important step forward in NIH’s efforts to speed the delivery of new drugs, diagnostics and medical devices to patients. Concurrent with the creation of NCATS, the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) has been dissolved, and former NCRR grants and contracts along with the scientific and administrative staff that lead and administer those activities have been reassigned to appropriate Institutes or to the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI) in the NIH Office of the Director.

Shiu-Lok Hu awarded $6.7 million from Gates Foundation for AIDS research

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded Shiu-Lok Hu a $6.7 million grant that will enable his research team to join the Consortium for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD), an international network of scientists launched by the Gates Foundation to design novel HIV vaccine candidates and advance the most promising candidates to clinical trials. Hu is a WaNPRC core staff scientist and the Gibaldi Endowed Professor of Pharmaceutics at the UW School of Pharmacy.

WaNPRC hosts 29th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS

 

The WaNPRC hosted the 29th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS from Tuesday, Oct. 25 to Friday, Oct. 28 in 2011 at Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle, Washington.

Beatrice Hahn, professor of medicine and microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, was the keynote speaker. Review the abstracts for speakers and posters.

This symposium contributed to the knowledge base on nonhuman primate models that will ultimately result in a vaccine to prevent transmission of HIV and enable treatments for those currently living with AIDS. Review the scientific program.

The WaNPRC thanks the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) for supporting this conference.

For more information, visit the symposium website.

WaNPRC welcomes science educators participating in NWABR’s CURE program

On Friday, July 29, scientists from the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) participated in “Collaborations to Understand Research and Ethics (CURE),” a professional development program designed for science teachers. The program was developed by the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research (NWABR) and funded by a Science Education Partnership Award grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Ethical Considerations in Research Conference Sept. 22 – 23 at UW Meany Hall

Graduate student scholarships are now available for attendance at the Ethical Considerations in Research Collaborations Conference Sept. 22 – Sept. 23 at UW Meany Hall. A limited number of scholarships are available and will be awarded first to graduate students who submit an original abstract that represents their field of scholarly work AND is judged to be relevant to the conference objectives.

Eberhard Fetz and Chet Moritz to contribute expertise to new NSF-funded Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering

 

Eberhard Fetz, WaNPRC core staff scientist, and Chet Moritz, WaNPRC affiliate scientist, will contribute expertise to a new Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) based at the University of Washington (UW). The CSNE, which launches this month in UW Russell Hall, is funded by an $18.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

“The center will work on robotic devices that interact with, assist and understand the nervous system,” said director Yoky Matsuoka, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering. “It will combine advances in robotics, neuroscience, electromechanical devices and computer science to restore or augment the body’s ability for sensation and movement.”

Fetz, a UW professor of physiology and biophysics, and Moritz, a UW professor of rehabilitation medicine, will contribute research on restoring movement to paralyzed limbs using tiny, battery-powered implantable brain-computer interfaces called neurochips. The two researchers and their colleagues have successfully deployed the devices in nonhuman primates.

“The neurochip can be used to bridge lost connections and can also strengthen neural connections by delivering stimulation synchronized with neural activity,” Fetz said. “It operates autonomously during free movements, allowing the adaptive brain to incorporate the artificial recurrent loop into normal behavior and provides ample time to create neural plasticity.”

The neurochip resulted from a productive collaboration between a neuroscientist, Andrew Jackson, and electrical engineering student Jaideep Mavoori. “The new center will provide many new opportunities for such innovative interdepartmental collaborations,” Fetz said.

Partners are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and San Diego State University. Also partnering are historically minority-serving institutions Spelman College and Morehouse College, both in Atlanta, and Southwestern College in Chula Vista, Calif. International partners are the University of British Columbia and the University of Tokyo.

For more information, read the UW news release.