Virginia
Commonwealth University
Research
Resources
John
B. Fenn, a research professor in the Department of Chemistry at VCU and an
affiliate professor of chemical engineering, is one of three recipients of the
2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Fenn
was honored for his work in the field of mass spectrometry, specifically an
analytical method that he published in 1988 called electrospray ionization (EIS)
in which charged droplets of protein solution are produced. Those droplets shrink as the water evaporates. Eventually, freely hovering protein ions remain. Researchers then can determine the mass of those protein ions by setting
them in motion and measuring their time of flight over a known distance.
The pioneering technique allows researchers to “weigh” large
biological molecules, such as proteins, with unprecedented accuracy. The technique is used in chemistry laboratories around the world to
rapidly and simply reveal what proteins a sample contains, contributing to the
development of new pharmaceuticals. Previously,
researchers using mass spectrometry were able to measure only small or
medium-sized molecules.
Virginia
Commonwealth University
was formed in 1968 through a merger of the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) and
Richmond Professional Institute. MCV
dates to 1838. VCU
is ranked by the Carnegie Foundation
as a Doctoral Research – University Extensive and received $169 million in
externally funded research in FY 2001-2002.
The majority of these funds are from federal agencies with NIH the
largest sponsor. Ten percent of the funding came from private industry. An ambitious expansion plan is underway to increase externally funded
research by $50 million over the next five years.
Essential
to the life of the university is the faculty actively engaged in scholarship and
creative exploration—activities that increase knowledge and understanding of
the world and inspire and enrich teaching. VCU
dedicates its interdisciplinary and comprehensive programs to enhancing the
research and educational opportunities offered to students and faculty. The university’s level of funded research places it 99th
among colleges and universities in the country in attracting federal research
grants.
Located
on two campuses in Richmond,Virginia, VCU enrolls
about 26,000 students in more than 170 undergraduate, graduate, professional,
doctoral, and post-graduate certificate degree programs at 11 schools and one
college. Twenty
of
VCU’s graduate programs rank in the top 60 of the U.S.
News and World Report 2004 “
America’s
Best Graduate Schools,” including the School
of Nursing, the
School
of
Medicine,
the School
of Dentistry, and the School
of Pharmacy. Programs ranked among the best in the country are VCU’s Health Services
Administration, Community Health, Health Services Administration, Physical
Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Clinical Psychology. The Nurse Anesthesia program was ranked best in the nation.
The
VCU Health System was
established effective
July 1, 2000
through a merger of the clinical
activities of the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, MCV Physicians, and the
VCU School of Medicine. The
VCU Health System is one of the leading academic medical centers in the country.
The
Medical School’s Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology ranks in the top
10 of NIH funded Pharmacology & Toxicology programs.
VCU is an outstanding resource for the development and testing of
pharmaceutical products, offering development technologies in all stages from
discovery to design and development through production. At the MCV campus, a new drug can enter the development process at any
stage, enabling a firm to take advantage of
interdisciplinary research expertise and advanced technologies necessary to
produce a pharmaceutical. The
faculty is experienced in collaborating with private industry and has worked
extensively with leading drug companies.
Life
Sciences Initiative
The
VCU Life Sciences
Initiative is a comprehensive undergraduate and graduate program
launched by VCU. The Initiative provides a unifying vision of the
interrelationships among the biological components
of life and involves everything from genes to ecological environments to human
behavior.
Offering
a unique undergraduate experience that combines scientific integrity and
real-world learning, VCU Life Sciences Initiative brings together outstanding
faculty from the university’s academic and health science campuses and
features flexible curricula comprising several interdependent bodies of
science—biology and chemistry, engineering and mathematics, medicine,
technology and physics.
The
new $28.1 million, 132,000 square foot Eugene P. and Lois E. Trani Center for
Life Science houses the Department of Biology, the Center for Environmental
Studies, the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity, a satellite lab of
the Nucleic Acid Research Facility, the Bioinformatics Computational Core
Laboratory Suite, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Life Sciences. The building features 17 undergraduate instructional labs and 44 research
labs.
School
of Engineering
VCU’s
$50 million School of Engineering
offers
degrees in biomedical, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering. The members of the school’s Board of Trustees are the presidents
and CEOs of major, manufacturing,
business, and financial organizations in Virginia. The school stresses creativity,
industry partnerships, strategic research, and understanding of business and
communication skills.
VCU
Institutes and Centers
VCU
is recognized nationally and internationally for numerous areas of research
strength. The university received $169 million of externally funded research awards in FY
2001-2002, an increase of 25% from the previous year. These are primarily federal funds, with NIH the largest sponsor. Ten percent came from private industry.
The school is committed to becoming a stronger research university with
the goal of being among the nation’s top 75 research institutions. The University has developed the following Institutes and Centers
to facilitate scholarly collaboration with private industry.
Pharmaceutical
Development and Testing
The
Clinical Trials Institute and the Outcomes Research Institute provides
a venue to attract and work collaboratively with the pharmaceutical industry on
a wide variety of Phase I - IV clinical trials.
Center for Drug Studies,
a fully staffed 50-bed facility in the School
of
Pharmacy, is one of the largest academic Phase I
clinical research centers in the country. Industry
sponsors include many of the nation’s leading drug companies.
Institute
for Structural Biology and Drug Discovery,
established
in May 1997, links structural biology, molecular medicine, biotechnology, and
drug design to produce new medicines.
Virginia
Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics combines the strengths of MCV’s
departments of Psychiatry and Human Genetics to study the role of genes and
environment in psychiatric illness and behavior. The institute includes the Mid-Atlantic
Twin Registry one of
the largest twin registries in the world.
McGuire
Research Institute at McGuire
Virginia
Medical
Center
is a non-profit organization associated with the Richmond
Veterans Administration
Medical
Center
-- a 500-bed tertiary referral hospital. The
institute supports investigators with faculty appointments who conduct inpatient
and outpatient Pre-clinical, Phase I, II, III, and IV trials and outcomes
research. Currently 70 investigators
are conducting 170 projects.
Medical
Research and Treatment
General Clinical Research Center
has received continuous funding through
the National Institutes of Health since 1962. The center, one of more than 70
nationwide, supports clinical investigation into the pathophysiology of human
disease and the testing of new methods of diagnosis and treatment. This miniature research hospital within the larger medical facility
includes 10 inpatient research beds, outpatient space, and a cadre of highly
skilled research personnel.
Massey
Cancer Center, the
focal point for basic and clinical research, education, and cancer health
delivery activities at VCU, has received continuous funding from the National
Cancer Institute since 1975, when it was designated as a clinical cancer center. More than 90 center members from 25 academic departments are involved in
collaborative research activities. The
center also operates shared laboratory resources for VCU’s basic scientists.
Hume-Lee Transplant Center. An
international leader in organ
transplantation since 1962, VCU had one of the nation’s first kidney
transplant programs and was the first in the U.S. to perform adult-to-adult
living liver transplants. The center also performs simultaneous kidney/pancreas
transplants.
Medical
Informatics and Technology Applications Consortium
is a NASA-funded commercial center with industrial, academic and
government partners, and a focus on telemedicine, medical informatics and
medical technologies.
Center
for Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips (C3B) has a focus on gene chips used for detection and measurement of targeted DNA and
RNA sequences in applications such as diagnostics.
Other
Life Sciences
Center
for Study of Biological Complexity
is a faculty
think tank that supports significant research activity in forensic science and
developmental biology and coordinates research capabilities in bioinformatics,
genomics, and proteomics, with a specific focus on microbial genomics and
developmental biology.
Center
for Environmental Studies,
the focal point for environmental science at VCU, emphasizes the importance of
the life sciences through innovative research, hands-on teaching and community
service. More than 40 faculty
members mentor talented undergraduate and graduate students in environmental
studies.
