PROJECT SUMMARY. The proposed Mississippi Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) is intended to promote multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional clinical and translational research projects, focused on obesity and related conditions, and involving three Mississippi Institutions?the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Tougaloo College, and the University of Southern Mississippi. This will be done in collaboration with the IDeA-funded Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center and the Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Science. The CCTR's Professional Development Core will provide extensive training and resources to foster the growth of Mississippi's next generation of obesity investigators and to increase their number, diversity, and success. An Investigator Development Program will provide structured mentorship, training, protected research time, and substantial research support to promising obesity-focused early stage research faculty from all CCTR partner institutions. A Mentor Academy will be provided to train funded, mid-career faculty members to be more effective research and career mentors. An annual, two-week residential Community Engaged Research (CEnR) Institute will train selected junior faculty members from all major Mississippi universities in the principles and practice of CEnR, and will offer opportunities for them to compete for substantial funding for obesity-related pilot research projects. A multi- institutional CEnR Working Group will hold bi-weekly teleconferences to present ongoing and completed CEnR research, discuss available resources and research options, and seek opportunities for multi-institutional obesity research projects and funding. Finally, a CCTR Seminar Series will offer bi-weekly seminars as a forum for the presentation of high-impact obesity-related research and as an opportunity for junior investigators to present their research and receive feedback. The programs described above will create a rich intellectual environment, promote investigator interactions, and provide targeted research investments to increase research collaboration among CCTR investigators from diverse backgrounds and academic disciplines, and to foster the development of young, obesity-focused investigators with sustained, independent extramural funding.
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