FAIRFAX, Va.—What do you get when you mix a world-class health system with an innovative, entrepreneurial university? A very successful research collaboration.
For more than a decade, researchers at Northern Virginia's Inova Health System and George Mason University have been collaborating on groundbreaking research on obesity, liver disease and cancer. In 2009, the two took the relationship one step further with the establishment of the Inova Life Sciences Research Collaboration Fund – George Mason University in which Inova Health System provided Mason with $1 million to stimulate and enhance collaborative research in the life sciences.
The second installment of the fund was presented by Zobair Younossi, vice president of research at Inova Health System, to Roger Stough, vice president for research and economic development at Mason, on May 13. The 2010 funding program is now open and accepting applications until July 1. To view this year's guidelines, visit http://research.gmu.edu/grants_studyleaves.html .
"The hope of this fund is to encourage additional areas of research collaboration between investigators at Mason and Inova and it has been very successful so far in doing so," says Younossi. "Our research results will be used to implement discoveries in new disease biomarkers and develop individualized treatment protocols and outcomes research projects that we hope will help our patients in the long term."
Last September, 16 two-year grants were awarded to health researchers from Mason and Inova Health System through the fund to study issues related to chronic disease management, obesity, heart disease, stroke, end-of-life provisions, genomics, proteomics, ethical issues and patient experience.
"I am most pleased with the development of this program that includes 16 teams of joint Inova-Mason researchers all focusing on a clinical/medical advanced research issue or problem," says Stough. "The collaborative nature of this program is contributing to the development of broad research relations and capability between the two organizations. This endeavor is further propelling the extension of not only research but also personnel decisions that in turn are deepening regional medical and clinical research capability and capacity."
Grantees for 2009-2010 are as follows:
About George Mason University
Named the #1 national university to watch in the 2009 rankings of U.S. News & World Report, George Mason University is an innovative, entrepreneurial institution with global distinction in a range of academic fields. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., Mason provides students access to diverse cultural experiences and the most sought-after internships and employers in the country. Mason offers strong undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering and information technology, organizational psychology, health care and visual and performing arts. With Mason professors conducting groundbreaking research in areas such as climate change, public policy and the biosciences, George Mason University is a leading example of the modern, public university. George Mason University—Where Innovation Is Tradition.