Collaborations between the University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia
Dr. Iqbal Khan, assistant dean of the School of Medicine's Southwest Georgia Clinical Campus in Albany, Ga. pictured in front of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.
UGA IHMMDD and MCG Emergency Medicine
The UGA Institute for Health Management in Mass Destruction Defense and the MCG Department of Emergency Medicine have jointly trained thousands of medical and public health personnel for certification in emergency preparedness. The programs have derived significant extramural funding. For example, the CDC awarded $2.6 million to the group with Cham Dallas (UGA) as P.I. and HRSA awarded $3.1 million to the program with Richard Schwartz (MCG) as P.I. Schwartz and Dallas have also received over $4.5 million in state funding for the program. The program has operated successfully for five years.
SONAT
The MCG School of Nursing at Athens (SONAT) instructs 188 students at the undergraduate and masters level taught by 22 MCG faculty. UGA provides access to campus libraries and services.
UGA/MCG Collaborative Grants Program
From 2001 to 2005, special funding initiative grants were awarded to UGA and MCG scientists collaborating in research. At UGA, the program was supervised by the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, and at MCG, by the Vice President for Research. Grants awarded over the period totaled $550,000. Extramural grants resulting from this program totaled over $2.5 million as of FY’07. This successful program provided the model for UGA’s subsequent joint grant program with Georgia Tech. Joint grants were awarded to the following partnering UGA and MCG faculty:
FY01: Steve Miller – UGA/Mary Ellen Quinn – MCG; Paige Carmichael – UGA/Stacey Kramer – MCG; James Cooper – UGA/MCG; Susan Fagan – UGA/MCG;
FY02: Rebecca Shisler – UGA/Kim Meador – MCG; Adviye Ergul – UGA/Mark Anstadt – MCG; Debra Mohnan – UGA/Vija Kumar – MCG; Michele Momany – UGA/John Fischer – MCG;
FY03: Vija Kumar – MCG/Ross Maclean – MCG/Bill Wade – MCG/Duska Franic – MCG/Brad Martin – MCG/Jeffrey Kotzan – UGA; Guigen Zhang – UGA/James Borke – MCG; Adviye Ergul – UGA/Mark Anstadt – MCG; Suchendra Bhandarkar – UGA/Jack Yu – MCG; Jeff Kotzan – UGA/Donna Fick – MCG; John McDonald – UGA/Jeffrey Lee– MCG;
FY04: Debra Mohnen – UGA/Vijay Kumar – MCG; David Chu – UGA/Gerald Supinski – MCG; David Chu – UGA/Dennis Marcus – MCG/Max Snoddderly – MCG; Robert Phillips – UGA/Andrew Mellor – MCG; Guigen Zhang – UGA/James Borke – MCG; James Bason – UGA/Thomas Gadacz – MCG.
MCG/UGA Student Exchange Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research
The award was established in 2002 and funds one graduate student from each university to present a seminar in biomedical research at the partnering institution. The award was created to foster research interaction between UGA and MCG and honor the overall scientific merit of the students’ work, including mastery of their scientific field and their presentation skills.
The Georgia Center for the Prevention of Obesity and Related Disorders
Dr. Michael Adams, president of University of Georgia.
The Georgia Center for the Prevention of Obesity and Related Disorders was established in 2002 as a UGA/MCG collaborative research and education resource to address the growing epidemic of obesity, one of the major public health problems facing Georgia. The initial directors were Rebecca Mullis, head of the UGA Department of Foods and Nutrition, and William Kanto, Chair of the MCG Department of Pediatrics. Subsequent extramural funding was received by several faculty including Rick Lewis and Cliff Baile at UGA.
Enterprise Information Technology disaster recovery
Greg Ashley of UGA Enterprise Information Technology Services is leading discussions among the four research institutions, including MCG, regarding opportunities for developing collaborative disaster recovery plans including ability to leverage each individual student’s infrastructure, applications and facilities in support of backup of critical services in case of disaster.
Consultant and Co-PI
Valerie A. Hepburn, Assistant Dean of the UGA College of Public Health, works with MCG President and SVC Dan Rahn as a consultant to the USG Health and Medical Programs Office and the ICAPP health professions initiative. Additionally, she serves as co-PI with President Rahn on a recently initiated grant funded by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation to evaluate and improve Georgia’s systems of health professions education.
Faculty collaboration
Professor Michael Pierce of the UGA Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and Dr. Kapil Bhalla, director of the MCG Cancer Center, are jointly studying tumor formation.
Health Center collaboration
The UGA Health Center (UHC) has a robust clinical and research partnership with MCG. UHC Medical Services physicians hold assistant clinical professor titles in MCG’s Department of Medicine. UHC provides competitive and highly sought after clinical rotations for MCG 4th-year medical students in general internal medicine and sports medicine and have clinical rotations for physician’s assistants.
Faculty collaboration
Dr. Gaylen Edwards, department head of Physiology and Pharmacology in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine, and UGA professor John Wagner, collaborate with MCG investigators.
Regional consortium
Neuroscientists in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine department of Physiology and Pharmacology participate in a regional consortium including MCG, the University of South Carolina, the Medical University of South Carolina, Emory University, Georgia Tech and Georgia State University.
Georgia Research Alliance Challenge Grant
Dr. Clifton Baile of the Animal and Dairy Sciences Department of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences holds a Georgia Research Alliance Challenge Grant with fellow GRA Eminent Scholar Jin-Xiong She at MCG, entitled Central Nervous System or Peripheral Leptin Injections on Bone Metabolism in ob/ob Mice. Objectives include (1) to determine the effects of peripheral and central administration of leptin in obese female mice on food intake, body weight, weights of parametrial, retroperitoneal fat pads, brown adipose tissue (BAT), bone and bone marrow parameters, serum concentrations of PYD, ALP and osteocalcin, and adipose tissue apoptosis; and (2) to determine the effects of altered leptin signaling on bone metabolism in the axial and appendicular mouse skeleton.
Joint NIH R01 application
Dr. Clifton Baile of the Animal and Dairy Sciences Department of the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences made a joint NIH R01 application with Mark Hamrick of MCG entitled Molecular Mechanisms of Bone Loss with Caloric Restriction. Specific aim 1 will determine how leptin-activated signaling pathways mediate the effects of caloric restriction on bone formation, and aim 2 will determine the effects of aging and caloric restriction on leptin-activated osteogenic pathways. The proposed research will investigate leptin treatment as a novel therapeutic approach for improving bone helath with aging and caloric restriction, and as such will contribute directly to the development of new treatment and prevention strategies for age-related bone loss.
Daniel W. Rahn, M.D., president of Medical College of Georgia.
Collaborative agreement
Drs. William Tollner of UGA Engineering and Suchi Bhandarkar of UGA Computer Science have had a cooperative effort with Drs. Jack Yu and Edmond Ritter of MCG for the past four years. The goal of the work was to develop a software-hardware approach that automated jaw reconstruction in ways that are attractive to patients undergoing trauma in routine civilian life or military situations. The cooperation produced a doctoral graduate who recently took a prestigious position with NIH, and also produced a patent application that is one step below the assignment of a patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office.
Memorandum of understanding – UGA College of Pharmacy and Medical College of Georgia Health Inc.
Payment to the Clinical Pharmacy Educator for provisions of clinical pharmacy services to populations served by the facility and consistent with its mission is willing to provide training opportunities for College of Pharmacy students.
Memorandum of understanding – UGA College of Pharmacy and Medical College of Georgia
Office- and teaching-related space, administrative costs and student costs used on the MCG campus for the UGA College of Pharmacy. There are approximately 85 individuals on this satellite campus, including faculty, Pharm.D. students, graduate students in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics, staff of the Medication Access Program (MAP), and research staff.
Memorandum of understanding – UGA College of Pharmacy and Medical College of Georgia Health Inc.
Student Applied Learning Experience Agreement. Affiliation of pharmacy students for hospital and clinical training.
Grant subcontract from MCG to UGA College of Pharmacy
10-31-RE575-169
Duration: 07/01/2007 to 06/30/2008
UGA PI: Dr. John Greene Shepherd
Project title: Mature Adult Health Education Program
Services are provided to predominantly low-income mature adults who receive services through the AAA Gateway Program and reside in high-rise apartments in Richmond County. Project in collaboration with MCG Clinical Pharmacology and Emergency Medicine and UGA Clinical Pharmacy.
Grant subcontract from MCG to UGA College of Pharmacy
10-21-RR575-163
Duration: 04/01/2007 to 03/31/2008
UGA PI: Dr. Susan Fagan
Project title: Minocycline to Improve Neurologic Outcome
Determine the maximally tolerated dose of intravenous minocycline up to a dose of 10 mg/kg in patients with acute ischemic stroke. This will gather preliminary data that is critical to the development of later phase II/II study of minocycline in acute ischemic stroke. Project in collaboration with Dr. David Hess, MCG.
Grant subcontract from MCG to UGA College of Pharmacy
10-21-RR571-204
Duration: 12/15/2005 to 11/30/2007
UGA PI: Dr. Michael Bartlett
Project title: Cholinesterase Inhibitors, Axonal Transport and Memory
Objectives: to develo0p and validate novel analytical methodologies for the determination of organophosphate insecticides and their metabolites from the rat. Project in collaboration with Dr. Alvin Terry, MCG.
Grant subcontract from MCG to UGA College of Pharmacy
10-11-RH571-225
Duration: 09/01/2005 to 08/31/2008
UGA PI: Dr. Cham Dallas
Project title: Bioterrorism Training and Curriculum Development Program
The purpose is to train a wide variety of disciplines of healthcare provided in Georgia to increase awareness and improve the interoperability of the target audiences, facilitate a seamless response, and improve the outcome of disasters, bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.
Grant subcontract from UGA College of Pharmacy to MCG
10-21-RR571-103
Duration: 07/21/2001 to 10/12/2008
UGA PI: Dr. Marie Chisholm
Project title: Statewide Medication Access Program (MAP) for Transplant Patients in Georgia – MAP Expansion Grant
The purpose is to increase access to medications for solid organ transplant patients who reside in Georgia.
Consultant
Anna Kozak, MS, UGA College of Pharmacy, is a consultant on an MCG NIH grant of Dr. Adviye Ergul (Physiology) – Diabetic Model of Ischemic Stroke.
Consultant
Dr. Susan Fagan, UGA College of Pharmacy, is a consultant on an MCG NIH grant of Dr. Chris Hall (Neurology) – Glucose Regulation in Acute Stroke Patients (GRASP). Dr. Fagan is an Adjunct Professor of Neurology at MCG.
Consultant
Dr. Susan Fagan, UGA College of Pharmacy, is a consultant on an MCG NIH grant of Dr. David Hess (Neurology) – Minocycline to Improve Stroke Outcomes Study (MINOS).
Service commitment
Dr. Greene Shepherd, UGA College of Pharmacy, has a 40 percent service commitment to provide education and consultative clinical services to the Department of Emergency Medicine (EM). Dr. Shepherd is appointed as a faculty member in EM.
Faculty collaboration
Dr. Adviye Ergul, MCG Department of Physiology, is co-director of the UGA Program in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics and is major professor to two Ph.D. students in the program.
Faculty collaboration
Dr. Alvin Terry, MCG Department of Pharmacology, is a faculty member in the UGA Program in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics and is major professor to two Ph.D. students in the program. He pays his students through a contractual agreement with UGA.
Co-investigator
Dr. Azza El-Remessy, UGA College of Pharmacy, is a co-investigator on an MCG NIH grant of Dr. Ruth Caldwell (Vascular Biology Center). She also provides lecture support in the MCG Department of Pharmacology graduate program.
Joint recruitment
Dr. Nick Patel was recruited to join the UGA Program in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics in October 2007 through a joint recruitment with the MCG Department of Psychiatry. He is appointed in Psychiatry and will be developing an extramurally funded research program in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Service agreement
Dr. Susan Fagan, UGA College of Pharmacy, holds a service agreement with the MCG School of Nursing to provide a course in Pharmacotherapy for Advanced Practice Nurses in Winter 2008.