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.
Center News
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.
Kyes’ International Field Study Program strengthens U.S. ties with Indonesia
Randall Kyes ‘ International Field Study Program in Indonesia is one of six U.S. programs to receive funding from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to increase the number of American students studying in Indonesia.
Eb Fetz and colleagues receive $1 million grant to develop implantable computers
Eb Fetz, WaNPRC core staff scientist, and colleagues for received a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation for a project titled “Implantable Computers to Augment Brain Function.”
Fetz is collaborating Professors Jeffrey Ojemann (Neurological Surgery), Brian Otis (Electrical Engineering) and Babak Parviz (Electrical Engineering) on a project to develop and deploy recurrent brain-computer interfaces (R-BCIs). These R-BCIs have numerous clinical applications for bridging damaged biological pathways and for strengthening weak neural connections.
For more information, read the UW news release.
ITHS and WaNPRC sponsor annual $75,000 Ignition Award
The Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) and the Washington National Primate Research Center (WaNPRC) are pleased to sponsor the Ignition Award for research focusing on the use of nonhuman primate models of human disease. The purpose of the 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 and subsequent clinical studies.
The WaNPRC intends to give one or two awards for up to $75,000 each. These funds must be used for WaNPRC costs only, and supplies and salaries must be administered by the WaNPRC. Submit applications to the WaNPRC by Monday, Feb. 14. Awardees will be notified beginning Friday, April 1. Application material, eligibility criteria and additional details are available on the ITHS website. Center staff and scientists with questions are also welcome to e-mail PrimateITHS@wanprc.org for more details.
Researchers develop first implanted device to treat balance disorder
Following a successful surgery on Oct. 21, a patient at the UW Medical Center became the world’s first recipient of a device that aims to quell the disabling vertigo associated with Meniere’s disease. The device being tested — a cochlear implant and processor with re-engineered software and electrode arrays — represents four-plus years of work by Jay T. Rubinstein and James O. Phillips, both of whom are WaNPRC affiliate scientists.