UMKC Center of Excellence in the Study of Dental and Musculoskeletal Tissues (CEMT).

This enterprise, under the leadership of Dr. Lynda Bonewald, represents a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary center that includes investigators from the Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, and Computing and Engineering to focus on dental and musculoskeletal health. This UMKC Center of Excellence integrates all investigators, whether basic or clinical, into a powerful translational team to prevent and treat diseases of teeth, cartilage, bone, and muscle.

The major objective of the Center is to expand the ability to make new discoveries in the basic sciences, and to translate these findings into diagnostic tests, prognostic indicators, and therapeutic interventions for diseases of muscle and mineralized tissues. There are four major objectives for this center;

• Develop a world-class basic science research program in mineralized tissues.
• Create an outcomes science platform and clinical trial networks.
• Provide education from graduate students and clinicians.
• Establish an infrastructure to develop biotechnology and technology transfer.

Drs. Jon Andresen, Ming Zhao and Michael Wacker are BMS faculty members who contribute to the research mission of CEMT.

UMKC’s nationally recognized Vision Research Center (VRC) is dedicated to advancing and promoting optimal vision health in the community and worldwide.  The VRC is an innovative research organization that integrates interdisciplinary collaborative research teams from the Departments of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Sciences at the School of Medicine, as well as faculty from the School of Pharmacy. The teams ­through strong interaction between basic, translational and clinical researchers ­bring discoveries in vision research to patients and their communities.

Dr. Peter Koulen is the Felix and Carmen Sabates Missouri Endowed Chair in Vision Research and serves as co-director of the VRC.  Dr. Koulen’s research is focused on developing new treatment strategies for diseases that damage nerve cells in the central nervous system and the eye.

Dr. Scott Duncan is interested in the immune system’s effect on the visual system and its role in the development of chronic diseases of the retina.

Dr. Karl Kador’s research focuses on injuries and diseases of the optic nerve, such as glaucoma, that lead to the death of the retinal ganglion cells, which connect the retina to the brain.  Dr. Kador employs methods for transplanting new cells to replace the cells that have died and uses tissue engineering to direct these cells through the retina and to the optic nerve to develop a treatment that will restore vision to patients suffering end stage diseases affecting the retina and optic nerve.

Care of the neurologically impaired patient is a growing and important aspect of healthcare today. Neurological impairments requiring specialized knowledge and care span a wide spectrum from chronic pain, epilepsy, drug addiction, and paralysis due to spinal injury or stroke, to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Recent advances in the broad discipline of Neuroscience has enhanced our fundamental knowledge of neural function and contributed to the development of novel therapeutic interventions such as the pharmacologic or mechanical removal of intravascular brain thrombi, and the implantation of brain electrodes to control muscular function. Despite these advancements in knowledge and treatment modalities, we are just scratching the surface, and there will continue to be an increasing demand for neuroscience research to meet the expanding needs for new drugs and technology to diagnose and treat neurological disorders. The ability to translate basic scientific research into clinical settings is vital to the advancement of neurological care, and the School of Medicine is active in both clinical and basic neuroscience research.

An advanced basic neuroscience research laboratory, under the direction of Dr. John Wang, has been established at the SOM. The research focuses on molecular signaling mechanisms triggered by drugs of abuse, as well as those used in clinical anesthesiology. Dr. Xiangping Chu is another important member of the neursoscience research group. His research focuses on the functional role of ion channels in ischemic brain injury.

The Shock/Trauma Research Center at the UMKC School of Medicine brings clinicians and scientists together to bridge the gap between basic science and clinical care. Investigators conduct basic and applied research on the mechanisms involved in tissue injury and organ failure in shock and on the development of new therapeutic intervention strategies to effectively treat the injured and diseased patients.

Nilofer Qureshi, Ph.D., professor of biomedical sciences and internationally renowned for her research on septic shock, is director of the Center. One of the few such centers in the Midwest, it is adjacent to Truman Medical Center, the largest Level I trauma center in Western Missouri. Nearly 1,000 patients per year are admitted to the TMC trauma center, approximately 40% with gunshot or knife wounds, and 20% with hemorrhagic shock and sepsis/shock. The Center is ideally suited to develop innovative techniques to treat shock based on proteasome modulators, which can be readily transferred to improve the care of septic civilians in the community, or septic wounded soldiers on the battlefield.

Several research investigators with diverse areas of expertise related to shock, including molecular biology, chemistry, biochemistry, surgery and models of septic shock conduct research at the Center. Clinical research activities involve investigators from the UMKC School of Medicine’s Departments of Biomedical Science and Emergency Medicine, and the Level 1 trauma center of TMC Hospital Hill. The Shock/Trauma Research Center will also create a sepsis and infectious disease focus group involving Children’s Mercy Hospital and Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City.

Dr. David C. Morrison and Dr. Charles Van Way III pioneered the Shock/Trauma Research Center and are presently appointed as Emeritus Professors.

MOLECULAR & CELLULAR IMMUNOLOGY (Sepsis/shock/inflammation)
Director:  Nilofer Qureshi, Ph.D. Professor (tenured), BMS
Neerupma Silswal, Ph. D   Assistant Research Professor, BMS
Monica Gaddis, Ph.D. Assist Research Professor, Bioinformatics
Gary Gaddis, M.D. Professor, St. Louis. (Clinical)
Charlie Inboriboon, M.D. Associate Professor (Clinical) TMC
COLLABORATORS
Peter Koulen, Ph.D. Professor BMS
Mike Wacker, Ph.D. Associate. Professor BMS
Mark Hoffman, Ph.D. (Children’s Mercy Hospital)
Emeritus Professors working on the Sepsis project:
David Morrison, Ph.D.
Van Way, M.D (Clinical)
Asaf A. Qureshi, Ph.D.
INFLAMMATION & SEPSIS
Director: Mingui Fu, Ph.D. Associate Professor. BMS

 

Chemical Management at SOM

Hazardous chemicals are managed by the UMKC Environmental Health and Safety Office (EHS). EHS maintains the University bar-coding system to inventory and track hazardous materials at UMKC. EHS works with every lab and conducts audits of each lab. In addition, EHS provides emergency response efforts for chemical spills.
Dr. Xiangping Chu is the School of Medicine representative for UMKC Chemical Safety Committee.

 

 

Miyako Rauls
Research Assistant – Biomedical Sciences
816-235-1621
myrwb4@umkc.edu