The Atlanta Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center conducts
a highly active research program which is among the ten largest
in the nation and is largely conducted by VA physician-scientists
who are also faculty members at Emory University School of
Medicine. The program is fortunate to include one of the
twelve national VA Rehabilitation Research Centers, one of
twenty national Research Enhancement Program Awards, and
research programs focused on medical and clinical problems,
rehabilitation medicine and engineering, as well as health
services and outcomes research.
The research program involves over 450 projects conducted
by 112 principal research investigators with more than 150
research associates and staff. These research projects cover
a broad range of subjects, including bacterial infection;
diabetes; development of new anti-HIV and -HBV (hepatitis)
agents; low vision devices and aids, low vision and disequilibrium
in the elderly; engineering and environmental design of facilities;
genetics and regulation of bone growth and remodeling; hormone
action; kidney mechanisms of hypertension; growth factor
interactions in lung development and disease; the genetics
of cancer; control of blood vessel contraction; drug addiction,
clinical anxiety and mood disorders, post-traumatic stress
disorder, disorders of memory and cognition, and clinical
management problems in hypertension, oncology, gastroenterology,
and pulmonary medicine.
The total research budget exceeds $30 million in direct
costs per year, with approximately half funded by the Department
of Veterans Affairs and the remainder funded by the National
Institutes of Health and the CDC and other sources. Laboratory
research is performed in a new 40,000 square foot state-of-the-art
facility that offers laboratories and core areas to support
a wide variety of multidisciplinary programs.
Specific developments during the recent several years of
rapid growth of the Atlanta VA research program include:
- Establishing an outpatient Clinical Studies Center headed
by a physician and certified clinical coordinator nurse.
- Utilization of 60,000 square feet of research space,
including of new laboratory facilities with state of the
art instrumentation.
- Establishing shared VA/Emory Core research facilities
serving the entire Emory research community.
- DNA sequencing core with microarray gene expression analysis.
- Micro-chemical protein sequencing and synthesis core.
- Funding of the VA Rehabilitation R&D Center collaboration
with the Emory University Rehabilitation Medicine, Ophthalmology,
and Geriatrics programs.
- Creation of the Atlanta Center for Clinical Effectiveness
Studies (ACCES), the Atlanta VA Medical Center's local
HSR&D group.
- Establishing a successful non-profit research foundation,
which offers $25,000 initial research funding on a competitive
basis to support future faculty development at the Atlanta
VA Medical Center.
- Funding of a multi-disciplinary VA Research Enhancement
Award Program (REAP) on Genetic Therapy for Bone and Mineral
Disorders.