GENERAL CLINICAL RESEARCH CENTER

Continuing partial support is requested for an Outpatient General Clinical Research Center which will be available to investigators from a wide variety of clinical and population-based departments at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, School of Hygiene and Public Health, and School of Nursing. The center will provide facilities for examination of study participants, funding of selected laboratory determinations, and assistance with study design and analysis. Emphasis will also be placed on the training of clinical investigators. The latter will include provision of targeted training opportunities for medical students, residents, post-doctoral fellows, nurses, and junior faculty members as well as provision of training by individual investigators and their research teams. Access to the center and distribution of resources will be overseen by an Advisory Committee appointed by the Principal Investigator. Major areas of investigation will include the study of infectious diseases (HIV virus, Herpes Simplex, human papilloma virus, Hepatitis C, and infectious endocarditis); cardiovascular diseases (prediction and recognition of ischemic heart disease in asymptomatic individuals, etiologic factors in coronary artery disease, pathogenesis of ischemic heart disease, HIV cardiomyopathy, and the value of interventions of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular disease risk factors; neuro-psychiatric disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, neuro-AIDS, dementia, autism, Huntington's disease, bi-polar illness, and the role of the sympathetic nervous system in pain); genetic diseases (Marfan Syndrome, craniofacial disorders, and Adrenoleukodystrophy); metabolism and endocrinology (diabetes mellitus, Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy, and organ-specific effects of thyroid hormone analogues); oncology (medullary thyroid carcinoma and breast cancer); renal disease (pathogenesis of idiopathic nephropathy, predictors of decline in renal function, long-term sequelae of uninephrectomy, and the value of non-pharmacologic and drug therapy in the prevention of decline in renal function); rheumatology (Sjogren's Syndrome and pregnancy in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus); ophthalmology (retinopathy of diabetes mellitus and Sickle Cell disease); hematology (pathogenesis and treatment of Sickle Cell disease); geriatrics (markers of functional decline in aging); nutritional studies (phenylalanine metabolism and physiological mechanisms of control of human eating behavior).