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Friday, May 30, 2008

What Would You Regenerate?

I came across this intriguing post and it got me to thinking.  If you could regenerate three parts of your body, what would you regenerate?  There are some rules, so go read them. 

The use of systems as an apparent cheat to the rules is interesting.  Since the vascular system can’t really be separated from the heart (there are veins and arteries within the heart), I have to admit that I would regenerate my entire cardiovascular system.  The immune system is not a system in the same way as the vascular system, consisting of everything from bone marrow to major organs.  If you include the endocrine system (and a good argument can be made for so doing), then I say yes for that being the second thing I would have done.  While a good case can be made for the digestive system, I would take the cheat one level further and say the sensory system.  Imagine having your hearing, sight, taste, and smell back as sharp as it was when you were young…

Okay, so what would you get done?

Weldon School Integral Part of New Medical Institute

Leaders of Indiana and Purdue universities Thursday announced the creation of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI), a medical research initiative supported by a $25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will combine the strengths of the universities, business and government to swiftly transform discoveries into better patient care and business opportunities.

“The Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering is a key, unique component of the Institute,” notes Dr. George Wodicka, head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue.  “Our expertise in medical device design, prototyping, and development, including bionanotechnology approaches, combined with our proven track record in bringing effective products to market will be invaluable to the Institute.”

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) of $25 million to the IU School of Medicine, which will fund CTSI activities at IU and Purdue. A total of $56 million will be invested in the Indiana CTSI by IU and Purdue, the state of Indiana and Eli Lilly and Co., which is underwriting the cost of a senior faculty position for three years.

The CTSI will implement the NIH initiative in Indiana with new programs to accelerate translational research, train new translational researchers, interact with community health-care professionals and the public, build research resources and technologies, and leverage Hoosier resources with health care, business, government and foundation partnerships.

The Indiana CTSI’s statewide collaboration involves university scientists in Indianapolis, Lafayette and Bloomington. However, the initiative also includes community partners such as Clarian Health, Eli Lilly and Co., BioCrossroads, Cook Group, Roche, WellPoint, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the Indiana Department of Health and the Marion County Health Department.

Anantha Shekhar, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at IU School of Medicine and IU assistant vice president for life sciences, has been named director of the Indiana CTSI. Connie Weaver, Ph.D., head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue, has been named deputy director of the CTSI at Purdue. Bennett Bertenthal, Ph.D., dean of the IU College of Arts and Sciences, has been named deputy director for the IU Bloomington campus.

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