Center on Injury Mechanisms and Related Responses

DESCRIPTION:Many disease processes, for
example those related to cancer, stroke and HIV infection, and health problems,
such as prolonged would healing, involve injury to cells and tissues.
Furthermore, these primary problems as well as interventions designed to
alleviate adverse outcomes from injury, such as return of blood flow after
stroke, may cause additional injury and seriously impact quality of life.
Conventional biomedical studies have often overlooked injury mechanisms and
related responses that are of concern to nursing and patient care. Thus, we at
The University of Arizona College of Nursing have been investigating injury
mechanisms and related responses to fill in these gaps. The overall goal of
this proposed Exploratory Center is to increase understanding about injury
mechanisms and related responses by incorporating biological techniques and
measures into nursing studies and interdisciplinary investigations. The
specific aims are to 1)Expand the capabilities of the College of Nursing
Biological Laboratories in order to support continued studies on injury
mechanisms and related responses relevant to health problems and to nursing,
2)facilitate collaborations among investigators in the College of Nursing and
in other disciplines who share research interests in injury mechanisms and
related responses, 3)increase the number of nursing studies that use
state-of-the-science methods for investigating injury mechanisms and related
responses to injury. The proposed exploratory Center on Injury Mechanisms and
Related Response will provide an infrastructure that centralizes facilities and
resources to support basic and collaborative research endeavors. The Center
infrastructure will include an Administrative Core and a Feasibility Studies
Core. This infrastructure will expand College of Nursing Biological
Laboratories capabilities by housing equipment to perform immunoassays,
electrophoresis, cell culture studies, and human physiology measures. The
Center will be housed within the College of Nursing, however, Center
Investigators represent a broad range disciplines, such as psychology and
physiology. Center Investigators bring expertise in methods encompassing
molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry and physical chemistry. Biological
imaging techniques, and human physiological measures. Thus, the collective
expertise and research efforts of Center Investigators have great potential to
advance knowledge about injury mechanisms and related responses relevant to
health problems and to nursing.