The Center for Human Genomics is a multidisciplinary research center at Wake Forest funded by public and private grants. The Missions of the Center for Human Genomics include the following: facilitate the identification of genes that contribute to common human disease; determine how these genes interact with environmental risk factors; define the context under which interventions can be devised to prevent disease; and promote the development of novel therapeutic regimes. Within the Center are three general subdivisions: Clinical, Molecular and Analytical/Informatics. These three divisions work closely together to examine common complex diseases with a genetic component such as Aging-related Disorders, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Cancer with specific emphasis on prostate cancer, and Respiratory Diseases (Allergy, Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and Sleep Disorders). More | Top of page

The Center for Medical Ultrasound is active in patient care, research, and education. The objectives of the Center are: a) To synthesize and utilize the multidisciplinary talents and activities in the Medical Center to promote individual and collective investigation into the application of ultrasound in diagnosis and therapy for better patient care; b) To promote basic research and advanced instrumentation development in ultrasound with diagnostic and therapeutic clinical applications; and c) To promote and encourage education in ultrasound at all levels of medicine.

Clinical activity is multidisciplinary in character and is managed by representatives of the major clinical areas. Over 30,000 clinical examinations are performed annually. The hospital and several School of Medicine departments are involved in these patient care activities.Educational activity includes several courses and advanced seminars annually. They are conducted within the Medical Center and at resort locations. Research projects are funded by the Center Research and Development Fund. More | top of page

The Center is one of 15 Alcohol Research Centers funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It is studying the central nervous system actions of alcohol by primarily using the methodologies of behavioral neuroscience. Many of the Center’s projects integrate with additional ongoing projects funded from both federal and private sources in a unified attempt to understand the mechanisms that control alcohol consumption. More | top of page

The Center for the Neurobiological Investigation of Drug Abuse is a multidisciplinary research and training Center funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). This Center provides an environment for scientific interactions among faculty and students at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and provides information about substance abuse to the general public through its outreach program. The premise behind this Center is that more effective treatment and prevention of substance abuse can be accomplished through increased knowledge of fundamental biological mechanisms underlying compulsive drug use.

The Center for the Neurobiological Investigation of Drug Abuse was established to provide a research and training environment for investigations of drug-seeking behavior. The investigators in the Center bring state-of-the-art technologies to explore mechanisms of drug action which permit rapid answers to critical questions concerning the national drug problem. A major research effort of the Center examines the brain processes which mediate compulsive cocaine and opiate abuse. The Center uses a wide array of multidisciplinary research techniques to explore these issues, including synthetic organic chemistry, molecular biology, neuropharmacology, neurochemistry, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and neurobiology. More | top of page

Initiated in 1989, the Comparative Medicine Clinical Research Center (CMCRC) has as its mission to conduct research on animal patients, particularly nonhuman primates, to gain insight into human health and disease. The goal is to span the gap between research in fundamental systems and the understanding of how pathobiologic processes express themselves in clinical disorders. The majority of the research at the CMCRC is carried out by the faculty of the Section on Comparative Medicine of the Department of Pathology. In addition, there is active collaboration with faculty in the Division of Surgical Sciences and the Departments of Internal Medicine, Public Health Sciences, and Physiology and Pharmacology.

The research at the CMCRC is focused on diseases of human beings with particular public health significance. The major emphasis is on the primary prevention of health problems of the aging, including coronary heart disease (especially atherosclerosis), osteoporosis, cancer, and cognitive dysfunction (such as Alzheimer’s disease). A particular focus of these studies is the role of reproductive hormones and dietary components of soy in modifying these disease processes. In addition, other ongoing research programs include developmental disorders (such as autism), and genetic and biobehavioral aspects of alcoholism.

The Center’s activities are supported by a program project and multiple other research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health and grants from the private sector. Training opportunities at both the predoctoral and postdoctoral levels are available through NIH training grants and other sources. More | top of page

The Cancer Center continues as a driving force in the rapid and sustained growth of cancer programs within the institution. The institution has a strong cancer-funding base with 45 peer-reviewed grants and contracts from the National Cancer Institute and a nearly equal number of cancer-focused grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, and the Department of Defense. Cancer Center members are also leaders in multi-institutional studies and several national cooperative groups.

The Cancer Center encourages translational research focused on a set of well-defined cancer problems focused around four programmatic themes: 1) Cell Growth and Survival: a) Growth and Death Regulation; b) Therapeutic Potential of Targeted Agents; 2) DNA Damage and Cellular Defense: a) DNA Damage by Reactive Oxygen Species; b) Genetic Susceptibility to DNA Damage; 3) Clinical Research: a) Therapeutic Modulation; b) Bioanatomic Imaging, c) Alternative and Complementary Therapies; 4) Cancer Control: a) Behavioral Interventions b) Early Detection c) Interventions for Survivorship Issues

These initiatives are carried out within four programs by just over 100 independent investigators. In addition to the programs, there are “idea incubators” as Centers of Excellence in prostate cancer and breast cancer. These Centers of Excellence bring together multidisciplinary groups focused on a single disease site as a catalyst for translational research designed to directly and promptly benefit patients suffering from these diseases. Innovative research on many other cancers is also under way, including brain, oral/head-and-neck, leukemia, and lung. More | top of page

The primary mission of the General Clinical Research Center is to provide clinical investigators with the fundamental resources and controlled environment necessary to conduct research with human subjects. Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFUBMC) GCRC helps investigators to translate basic scientific knowledge into new or improved methods of patient care. The Center also seeks to develop and maintain a core of competent, experienced clinical investigators within the institution. To accomplish these goals, the Center’s resources include expert nursing, dietary, and laboratory personnel trained in research techniques; fully equipped inpatient and outpatient rooms; patient monitoring devices; a metabolic kitchen and dining area; a sample-processing laboratory; a molecular genetics laboratory; a computer center; biostatistical, safety, and demographic expertise; and funding for routine ancillary testing. The newest addition is the first Geriatric GCRC in the nation that opened in February 2003.

The GCRC is available to all clinical investigators within the School of Medicine who show a need for the Center’s resources and who will conduct clinical research of significant scientific merit. NIH-funded research has top priority to use the Center, but studies funded by foundations, industry, and other sources are also welcome. A physician must be associated with the study, either as principal investigator, co-investigator, collaborator, or consultant and is considered ultimately responsible for all patient care relating to the research protocol. All investigators and co-investigators must be certified in the human subjects curriculum, CRICC (Clinical Research Investigator/Coordinator Certificate Program). The GCRC has approximately 7,600 research visits per year and conducts more than 100 human research protocols annually. More | top of page

The Hypertension Center was established in 1992 to amalgamate various efforts in the investigation of the fundamental mechanisms of high blood pressure and vascular disease into a program that allowed for the lineal integration of basic and clinical research. The mission of the Center is to attend to the human causes of high blood pressure and related diseases of the heart and blood vessels through investigation of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of hypertension in the setting of clinical research and patient care.

The Center bridges the span between fundamental research and human disease processes by consolidating the focused programmatic approach of the basic science faculty with the interest and expertise of the physicians who render patient care and investigate the pathobiology of hypertension and vascular disease in human subjects. Insights gained into the causes and mechanisms of high blood pressure and vascular diseases are translated into approaches that address aspects of secondary and primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases through the activities of the participating faculty in postgraduate medical educational activities and community-based awareness programs. More | top of page

The J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging is the hub of a comprehensive, coordinated effort to learn more about aging, to teach others what is learned, and to improve the health of older people.

The Center’s research is funded by numerous grants from industry, scientific foundations, and the National Institutes of Health, including a Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center grant from the National Institute on Aging. The Center’s research focus on preventing disability and maintaining the independence of older adults is being pursued using an interdisciplinary approach that traverses the entire spectrum of biomedical investigation, including molecular biology, in vitro and animal studies, clinical research, behavioral and social sciences, and epidemiology. The recently opened Roena Kulynych Dementia Center, which is part of the Center on Aging, focuses on the impact of cognition on physical independence. More than 60 scientists participate in the research program of the Center on Aging.

The Center has a large training program for clinicians and scientists by providing training in gerontology and geriatrics for medical students, residents, and fellows, as well as for junior faculty members. The Center on Aging has gained national and international recognition of excellence by attracting scientists and trainees from the US and from throughout the world..

The Center is a leader in clinical care, providing innovative services to meet the special health care needs of older adults, including outpatient care, acute, subacute and long-term care, home care, rehabilitation, and psychiatric care for the elderly. More | top of page

The Maya Angelou Research Center on Minority Health at Wake Forest University is a new multidisciplinary center established in response to an urgent need to close the health gap between minorities and the rest of the United States population. It was founded on the premise that health and disease cannot be viewed solely as biological occurrences, but also as mental and physical consequences of underlying behavioral, social, and cultural phenomena.

The primary mission of the Center is to enhance wellness, improve quality of life and reduce the burden of disease in minorities through a) education, b) research, c) an increased number of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical community, and d) dissemination, and translation of new research findings (i.e., implementation of effective health care strategies). More | top of page