mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636
DURHAM -- Research organization RTI International has created a new multidisciplinary center for translational research in the organization's facility at Durham's Research Triangle Park.
RTI is putting more than $2 million into the new center, called Molecular Epidemiology, Genomics, Environment and Health (MEGEH), where researchers will study the complex relationships between genetics and their interactions with environmental factors.
Translational research, or a bench-to-bedside approach, moves discoveries from "the bench," or lab work and research, to practical application at the patient's "bedside."
According to Susan Sumner, a senior scientist with RTI, the new center grew out of informal meetings over the years, by scientists mainly on their own initiative, to put together a strategy for translational research.
"RTI has formalized it as a real center now, and we're really excited to come together as a real working group," Sumner said. "While there's significant progress made, scientists really need to recognize that there is a need to come together from a variety of backgrounds to take the information generated in a lab using cells to how a clinician would be able to treat a patient."
The new center so far has three main programs, one focused on interdisciplinary study of neuro behavior, the second focused on obesity research and a third on spatial and systems sciences.
The center counts 20 full-time team members from a wide range of the organization's research fields and 10 "adjuncts" who belong to other disciplines within RTI. Two open positions still need to be filled, including one for the director of the center.
Since 2001, RTI has been laying the foundation for the new center, including advancing capabilities in mass spectrometry, metabolomics, bioinformatics, biostatistics and high-performance computing. Sumner pointed to more recent federal funding for research that led to the necessity for a formal center.
"The creation of the center gives the researchers an opportunity to come together in a unique way. A lot of people talk about translational research, but sometimes that's more difficult to do when we're not in the same environment," she said. "... As the federal government has been funding individual programs, science is moving forward and there are more opportunities to connect different disciplines."
The center also will formalize partnerships between RTI and local universities. Sumner is heading the Metabolomic and Obesity Research Initiative within the new center. Her team will be working with researchers at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.
