The Methodist Hospital Research Institute Creates Multidisciplinary Translational Research Departments
HOUSTON (April 25, 2011) -The Methodist Hospital Research Institute announced last week that it is creating three new departments that integrate the research expertise of multiple programs to drive the translation of research ideas into clinical innovations:
The Department of Nanomedicine will be overseen by interim Co-Chairs Drs. Alessandro Grattoni, Jason Sakamoto, Rita Serda and Ennio Tasciotti. Researchers in this department will partner with clinicians in The Methodist Hospital to develop technology platforms like intelligent implants for drug delivery and fracture putty materials for bone regeneration. Other major platforms include injectable nanovectors for personalized therapy systems, and nanoporous silica chips for the early detection of disease from blood proteomic signatures.
Dr. Stephen Wong will chair The Department of Systems Medicine and Bioengineering. The mission of this department is to develop computational technologies that manage and integrate patient data with the information generated by large research studies. These technologies support drug development, analysis of therapeutic outcomes and clinical decision making. They also lead to clinical innovations in patient care, like the on-the-spot system for detecting and treating small lung cancer that was developed by Dr. Wong's team at the Research institute.
The Department of Translational Imaging will be chaired by Dr. King Li, and Vice Chairs Ching-hsuan Tung and Paolo Decuzzi. In collaboration of Methodist clinicians, researchers will develop new translational imaging materials and technologies that improve patient diagnosis, therapy and outcomes. These partnerships have lead to the development of a conical-beam CT imaging system that increases the safety of imaging by reducing overall radiation exposure during CT scans.
For more information on The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, see www.methodistresearch.com. For more information on The Methodist Hospital, see www.methodisthealth.com. Follow Methodist on Twitter at twitter.com/MethodistHosp and Facebook at www.facebook.com/methodisthospital.
