A floor-by-floor look at the Saunders Research Building

FIRST FLOOR

Thomas A. Pearson, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.

Clinical and Translational Science Institute

The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) provides researchers with the comprehensive set of services, expertise, and resources necessary to carry out all phases of translational research. The CTSI, which is led by Thomas A. Pearson, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., also funds pilot projects, oversees new graduate programs in translational medicine, and serves as the hub for the Upstate New York Translational Research Network, a consortium of 16 biomedical research centers from across the state.

Office of Human Research Protection/Research Subject Review Board

These offices, which are directed by Gary Chadwick, Pharm.D., M.P.H. and Kelley O'Donoghue, M.P.H. (MPH ’06), review all human subject research that is conducted or supported by the University of Rochester to determine whether the rights and welfare of the volunteers are adequately protected.

Clinical Research Center

The Clinical Research Center (CRC) provides a collaborative setting for medical investigators to conduct safe and controlled inpatient and outpatient studies of both children and adults, and for research subjects to participate in a supportive and efficient environment. The satellite outpatient unit of the CRC located in the Saunders Research Building is dedicated to low-risk studies.

SECOND FLOOR

Center for Human Experimental Therapies

This new center provides academic and industry researchers the expertise necessary to conduct early-stage clinical studies. The personnel that comprise CHET have managed more than 70 multi-center, international clinical trials and are used by several consortia of investigators in neurological disorders. These groups of academic investigators from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia have been involved in the study and approval of essentially every major new drug for the treatment of Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases. CHET is headed by neurologist Karl Kieburtz, M.D., M.P.H. (M ’85, MPH ’85).

Cancer Control Program

Gary Morrow, Ph.D., (front) and Cancer Control researchers.

The James P. Wilmot Cancer Center houses the largest group of specialists in the world dedicated to studying ways to manage the side effects of cancer and helping patients achieve optimal quality of life while they undergo treatment and move on as survivors. The group, headed by Gary Morrow, Ph.D., chief of behavioral medicine at Wilmot, along with Supriya Mohile, M.D., and Karen Mustian, Ph.D., M.P. H. (MPH ’09), is the research hub for hundreds of studies seeking the root causes of side effects and ways to alleviate those problems.

Cancer Survivorship Program

As more people than ever survive cancer, there has been significant effort to study ways to improve their quality of life and provide support for them. In 2006, the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center launched a research program to improve cancer survivorship for the nearly 10 million people who have been treated for the life-threatening disease. The Rubin Center for Cancer Survivorship Program is named in honor of Phillip Rubin, M.D., who was a national pioneer in radiation oncology. Lois Travis, Ph.D., who is known for her research in cancer survivor populations, leads the program. Louis S. Constine, M.D., and Michelle Shayne, M.D. (BMus ’85, M ’98, R ’01), work with Travis to devise a multidisciplinary approach to follow-up cancer care.

Muscle Study Group

The Muscle Study Group (MSG) is a consortium of scientific investigators from academic and research centers in the U.S., Canada, and Europe dedicated to understanding and developing new treatments for rare muscle and other neuromuscular diseases, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, dermatomyositis, hyperkalemic and periodic paralysis, inclusion body myositis, myasthenia gravis, and spinal muscular atrophy. The MSG provides the organization infrastructure and scientific expertise to enable researchers in Rochester and across the globe to plan, implement and analyze clinical trials and other research in this family of diseases. MSG is headed by Robert Griggs, M.D. (R ’71), an internationally recognized expert in a rare family of neuromuscular diseases called channelopathies.

Emergency Medicine Research Program

Jeffrey J. Bazarian, M.D., M.P.H., Manish Shah, M.D., M.P.H., and William Sheahan of the Emergency Medicine Research Program.

Emergency Departments like those at Strong Memorial and Highland Hospital represent the front line of acute care and provide ideal environments to evaluate new methods that improve care and reduce cost in both the emergency setting and beyond. The University of Rochester Medical Center Emergency Medicine Research Program, headed by Manish N. Shah, M.D. M.P.H. (M ’96, MPH ’06), has launched several initiatives, including traumatic brain injury and global health, efforts to evaluate and improve the decision-making and expertise of emergency medical technicians and paramedics and the quality and cost effectiveness of emergency care for older adults. The Medical Center also is the hub of a network of six upstate New York emergency departments that are collaborating on specific research projects and collecting data that will ultimately help improve health outcomes.

Seychelles Child Development Study

The Seychelles Child Development Study is a research project led by the University of Rochester and includes the Ministries of Health and Education in Seychelles, and the University of Ulster in Ireland. For more than two decades, Rochester researchers have evaluated residents of the Seychelles to determine the health effects of low levels of mercury in a diet high in seafood. The work has been one key in increasingly common recommendations for people, including pregnant women, to eat seafood to stay healthy. The Seychelles Child Development Study is led by Gary J. Myers, M.D., and Philip W. Davidson, Ph.D.

THIRD FLOOR

Department of Public Health Sciences

Faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences concentrate on improving quality of life through research in population-based chronic disease prevention, understanding social, behavioral, and environmental risk factors and how to influence these behaviors on a community-wide scale, and identifying ways to improve health care quality, safety, and patient outcomes. In addition to a core research focus in the areas of behavioral sciences, epidemiology, and health services research, the research interests in the department also extend to a wide range of the social sciences. The department is headed by Susan Gross Fisher, M.S., Ph.D.

Pediatric Research

Pediatric researchers Peter G. Szilagyi, M.D., Ph.D., and Geoffrey A. Weinberg, M.D.

The Division of General Pediatrics has a long history of research investigating the most effective means to address health issues and health care delivery for at-risk and under-served pediatric populations. The division has developed a national model for providing medical care to foster children and for training the next generation of pediatricians to better understand their communities and the role it plays in their patients’ health. The group also evaluates the effect of health insurance or lack of insurance on health, examines the impact of providing acute care through telemedicine and searches for effective ways to measure and address the childhood obesity epidemic. Peter G. Szilagyi, M.D., M.P.H. (M ’81, R ’84, MPH ’87), is chief of the division.

FOURTH FLOOR

Heart Research Follow-up Program

This program is one of the nation’s leading cardiac research programs and its 20-plus years of work studying the electrical activity of the heart has led to groundbreaking advances in cardiovascular care. The program, which is headed Wojciech Zareba, M.D., Ph.D., and Arthur J. Moss, M.D. (R ’62, FLW ’65), focuses on preventing sudden cardiac death, identifying patients at risk of cardiac mortality, understanding mechanisms of disease increase risk of death and cardiac arrhythmias. Faculty in the program have spearheaded research that led to the widespread use of the implantable cardiac defibrillator, revolutionized the care of individuals with a rare cardiac condition called Long QT syndrome, and partnered with the FDA and NIH to lead a new national drug safety initiative.

Biostatics and Computational Biology

As a major contributor to the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology operates a consulting service that provides help with topics ranging from advice on study design and analysis to complete data management. The department already has strong collaborative relationships with researchers in many departments, including Public Health Sciences, Neurology, Environmental Medicine, Biomedical Genetics, Psychiatry, Orthopedics, and the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. David Oakes, Ph.D.,is interim chair of the department.