Research Infrastructure Core Abstract Our Research Infrastructure Core proposed in this renewal application is designed to meet the mission of creating technology and infrastructure for investigators/researchers conducting leading-edge translational research to improve health and eliminate health disparities. This Core is built upon established infrastructure at CDU through a combination of institutional funds (IDC), previous AXIS/RCMI/NIMHD funding support (2009- 2014 and 2014-2019), other Center grants, and Endowment funds. It will be supported through R01 projects, Pilot and Seed projects, Drug Discovery Unit, Clinical Research Resource Unit, Biomedical Informatics Unit, Research Method/Statistical Unit and ICTBD (Integrated Clinical and Tissue Biorepository/Biobank Data Base Core). The core is designed to combine the established research resource infrastructure in last two cycles of AXIS grant funding period that included Research Methods/Statistical Unit, Biomedical Information Unit, Clinical Research Resources and Facilities Unit and Laboratory Technology Unit. The guiding philosophy of this proposed combined Research Infrastructure Core is that although many projects can be advanced by using sophisticated genomic and cell biology techniques, their expense and difficulty of first use represent a significant barrier. The new combined Research Infrastructure Core with focus on Precision Medicine is specifically designed to overcome this barrier by providing training to CDU investigators that is not typically available in most next generation sequencing, genomics, bioinformatics, cell biology, or other specific core facilities. Moreover, this combined Research Infrastructure Core builds bridges among basic, clinical, behavior, and community- based researches by providing comprehensive support and services to investigators conducting translation research that includes Full-RO1 research projects proposed in this application and pilot and seed projects those have been or will be developed in the Investigators Development Core.

The RCMI AXIS Program at CDU is designed to address health disparities through research in diseases that affect the community it serves and creating technologies and research infrastructure to serve the institutional scientific community and its academic and community partners. Our Research Infrastructure Core proposed in this renewal application is designed to meet the mission of creating technology and infrastructure for investigators/researchers conducting leading-edge translational research to improve health and eliminate health disparities. The new combined Research Infrastructure Core with focus on Precision Medicine is specifically designed to overcome this barrier by providing training to CDU investigators that is not typically available in most next generation sequencing, genomics, bioinformatics, cell biology, or other specific core facilities. Moreover, this combined Research Infrastructure Core builds bridges among basic, clinical, behavior, and community- based researches by providing comprehensive support and services to investigators conducting translation research that includes Full-RO1 research projects proposed in this application and pilot and seed projects those have been or will be developed in the Investigators Development Core.