Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network
NIH – National Center for Research Resources

BRIN/RCMI Bioinformatics Workshop

The Delaware BRIN

The Delaware Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (Delaware BRIN), established in September 2001 under funding provided by the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health, will expand existing capabilities and expertise in basic molecular and cellular biosciences in the State of Delaware.  The Delaware BRIN, with strong support by the State of Delaware, its institutions of higher education, and local industry, builds on a major initiative to establish Delaware as a center of excellence in life-science-based discovery research and education, encompassing multidisciplinary research and development in biotechnology and basic biomedical sciences, graduate and undergraduate educational programs, and new opportunities for faculty research and funding. 

The Delaware BRIN, under the leadership of David S. Weir and Karl V. Steiner at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, links all of the Delaware’s institutions of higher education – the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Delaware Technical and Community College, and Wesley College – that offer graduate, undergraduate and associate degrees in the sciences, institutions that serve some 72,000 students each year.

The Delaware BRIN has identified four research areas, supported by a bioinformatics capability, which will be the focus of developing multidisciplinary teams across the network.

• Protein Structure and Function
• Cellular and Extracellular Structural Biology
• Molecular Interactions
• Genomic and Metabolic Organization

The three Cores of the Delaware BRIN – in addition to the Administrative Core – are as follows:

• Establishment of Centralized Research Instrumentation Centers, under the central management of the Delaware BRIN Director and Administrative Core. A centrally managed and professionally staffed research instrumentation core is under development for the Delaware BRIN.  A key impact of NIH BRIN funding will be the completion of five fully functional research instrumentation facilities plus the bioinformatics core, achieved by leveraging existing financial and instrumentation resources in our network, with complementary funding through BRIN. The establishment of these Centralized Research Instrumentation Centers as a regional resource will significantly improve the competitiveness of biomedical research at Delaware’s academic institutions. In order to function as effective institutional assets, the instruments require dedicated professional operators.  These instruments will be placed either within the new DBI facility, or at selected Network sites where resident experts will be available to operate and manage them.  All core facilities will be linked to the bioinformatics core to capture, analyze, and integrate the data.
  (Core Directors: Abraham Lenhoff, Daniel Simmons)
  
  
• The Training and Mentoring Core provides mentoring and training for junior faculty and young investigators: technical workshops; faculty sabbatical and summer exchange programs; BRIN grant review study groups to increase NIH award rates; travel awards to attend regional and national scientific meetings.  Advance undergraduate and graduate training programs in biotechnology / life science at Delaware State University (DSU), Delaware Technical and Community College (DelTech), and Wesley College through: summer research internships for graduate/undergraduate students; the launch of an undergraduate degree program in biotechnology at DSU, an HBCU within the Network; and further development of bioscience curricula at DelTech and Wesley.
  (Core Directors: Roberta Colman, Teresa Singleton, Joan Barber, Jonathan Kidd)
  
  
• Both the instrumentation and training cores are linked through the Bioinformatics Core -to create and maintain databases; to develop software tools; and to conduct bioinformatics workshops.  The primary role of the Bioinformatics Core will be to organize, assemble, store, and analyze the vast amount of data that will be generated from research programs at the interface of biology, engineering, biochemistry, and computer science.  It will also provide a powerful resource to grant rapid access to public and proprietary databases and algorithms and serve as an educational and training facility.  As outlined above, the Delaware BRIN Bioinformatics Core facility will be housed within the DBI research facility but will be made effectively accessible to the entire network via high-speed data networks.
  (Core Directors: Guang Gao, Keith Decker, Kam Kong, Allen Alexander)