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About IBPHS
 Virginia
Tech established the Institute for Biomedical and Public Health Sciences
(IBPHS) in August 2003 following recommendations from several faculty
committees studying ways to emphasize and expand collaborative,
interdisciplinary research at Virginia Tech related to biomedical and health
issues. The mission of IBPHS is to enhance the quality and quantity of research
in the biomedical and public health sciences at Virginia Tech and to develop
innovative cross-disciplinary research efforts in the areas that foster the
development of new knowledge. This strategy is in alignment with the NIH
Roadmap (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/)
that describes major future funding to interdisciplinary research teams rather
than single investigators examining a small slice of a problem.
The Institute has a director who reports to the Vice President for Research and
is advised by a Stakeholder Committee (Deans from involved colleges and Center
Director for Virginia Bioinformatics Institute) and a Faculty Scientific
Council. IBPHS is currently focusing on two primary areas that build on current
Virginia Tech strengths: "Infectious Disease" and "Food, Nutrition, and
Health". The focus of the latter area is prevention and treatment of obesity
with a unique comprehensive approach from development and evaluation of new
foods through behavior change by the consumer. The former area will focus on
reducing and managing emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Three
additional areas of interest in IBPHS are Molecular and Cellular Regulation,
Genomics Science, and Neuroscience, areas that will likely be more fully
developed over time.
Efforts this first year for IBPHS are focused on strategic planning and
identifying strategies to elevate research productivity and quality in the
programmatic areas. Those decisions are currently being made using information
about current research strengths, funding potential, competition, and critical
areas for the future. Efforts to elevate these research areas are envisioned to
include partnering with Colleges for faculty cluster hires that focus on
similar biomedical problems involving faculty from different but complementary
disciplines, space and equipment allocation, graduate program development, and
development of appropriate partnerships with industry, medical, and other
academic institutions that will help IBPHS achieve its goals.
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