Christiana Care will receive $1.65 million a year over the next five years to continue developing research and educational programs as part of the Delaware Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN).  The National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has granted a total of $16.7 million (August 2004 - June 2009) to BRIN partners through an initiative called the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE). The purpose of INBRE is to foster an exchange of resources and expertise to build new research opportunities and increase the number of participating investigators within the BRIN infrastructure.

• Administration
• Research
• Centralized Research Instrumentation
• Bioinformatics 
• Undergraduate Research Experience
• Outreach

Life sciences research
The Delaware BRIN joins several of the state’s academic institutions to promote life-sciences research and education under the leadership of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI). Besides Christiana Care, BRIN partners include the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Delaware Technical and Community College and Wesley College, who support program objectives in five core areas: administration, bioinformatics, training and mentoring, research instrumentation and academic medicine. Christiana Care joined the Delaware BRIN in 2002, to lead the academic medicine core under the direction of Brian W. Little, M.D., Ph.D., vice president for Academic Affairs and Research.  Funds will be used to build the infrastructure to do research, sponsor resident and staff physicians to undertake research projects and provide travel and teaching assistance.

Cancer research
The INBRE grant will push forward several projects already underway in oncology research at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center. Projects in gynecologic oncology, lung cancer and prostate cancer are underway.  Currently Christiana Care physicians are providing human tissue samples to scientists doing translational research in the laboratory through the Tissue Procurement Center housed in the Department of Pathology.

In other areas, INBRE funds will provide continued support for work underway by Christiana Care’s Department of Radiology in conjunction with the University of Delaware and DBI to develop state-of-the-art bioimaging and virtual reality tools. These will incorporate image data from the Virtual Human Project to help train physicians and other health care personnel.

Specific opportunities
• Funding for faculty research projects up to $70,000 per year in basic or translational research
• Funding for resident basic biomedical research in Delaware for up to 2 years
• Summer student or graduate student projects
• Sponsorship of lectures in translational research, imaging or other areas of interest

For more information please contact Dr. Little or visit the INBRE Web site.