Administrative Core

ADMINISTRATIVE CORE: ABSTRACT The overall goal of the Columbia University George M. O?Brien Urology Cooperative Research Center is to study the role of abnormal urinary tract development and altered host defense mechanisms in the pathogenesis of urinary tract infections (UTIs) and their complications. This work builds on the previous five years of funding and has brought together a collaborative, multidisciplinary team of clinical, translational, and basic scientists that have taken significant strides in better understanding urologic dysfunction and disease. In this renewal application, the Columbia O?Brien Center consists of three Research Projects, a new Microbial Genomics Biomedical Core (MGBC), and an Administrative (Admin) Core. The Admin Core will be a central component of the Center by providing scientific leadership and organizational structure for all O?Brien activities, and will be responsible for all financial, administrative, communication, and data dissemination functions. With guidance from the Internal and External Advisory Committees, the Executive Committee will provide multidisciplinary scientific leadership to implement the management plan and ensure that the projects and the MGBC are achieving their aims. The Executive Committee will also safeguard the strong synergies that exist between all O?Brien Cooperative Research Centers, continue to interact with multiple NIDDK programs, and ensure effective communication and data sharing throughout the broader urology community. Additionally, a key function of the Admin Core will be to support and administer the O?Brien Educational Enrichment and Opportunity Pool Programs. The Educational Enrichment Program includes the Columbia O?Brien Summer Student Research Program, an intensive 10-week laboratory internship where medical and graduate students, undergraduates and high-school students are exposed to urologic research and career path training. The Educational Enrichment Program is coupled to Columbia?s diversity-oriented outreach and physician-scientist training programs to promote research careers in the field of benign genitourinary diseases. The Opportunity Pool Program will continue its selection of exceptional projects through a rigorous internal and NIDDK-structured process that focuses on identifying and collaborating with promising young or established investigators whose research is applicable to but outside the field of Urology. Through these activities, the Admin Core will promote the research mission of the Columbia O?Brien Center and the larger O?Brien Cooperative Network.