A RESEARCH POWERHOUSE

With $74 million in research funding, students are part of a research powerhouse that includes two Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence – the Center for Lung Biology and Disease and the Center for Pre-Clinical Cancer Research – and the Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, along with other research laboratories investigating ways to improve and protect lives. Included in federal funding for biomedical research is $22 million in Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) funding from the National Institutes of Health.

The newest center of excellence is the Center for Pre-Clinical Cancer Research. The Cancer COBRE established the Pre-Clinical Evaluation Core to provide scientific and technical expertise for cancer projects and researchers.

The Cancer COBRE enhances cancer research both at LSU and at Southern University, strengthens collaborative research efforts with LSU HSC-New Orleans, and aids in efforts to establish a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center in Louisiana, which ranks fifth in the nation for cancer mortality.

The school is leveraging its Center for Pre-Clinical Cancer Research and its small animal clinical trials toward a Center for Comparative Oncology that provides preclinical testing for cancer drug development. This center will work together with the LSU Health Sciences Center Stanley Scott Cancer Center and the Louisiana Cancer Research Center to address the disease in animals and humans, with the intention of taking steps toward forming a nationally recognized comprehensive center with a National Cancer Institute designation.

Biomedical research at LSU Vet Med focuses on the link between animal and human health, with scientists investigating human and animal diseases and injuries related to cancer biology, infectious disease, vaccinology, equine health, lung biology, toxicology, and other areas aimed at enhancing and protecting lives.

“In all that we do we are working for a healthier world for all,” Dean Garden said.