TABLE OF CONTENTS
Facilities and Buildings................................................................................................................................... 4
Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM): ..................................................................................... 4
Washington University Danforth Campus (WUDC): .................................................................................... 4
BJC Healthcare (BJC): ................................................................................................................................. 4
Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH): .................................................................................................................... 4
Northwest Tower (NWT): .............................................................................................................................. 5
St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH): .......................................................................................................... 5
Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM): ........................................................................................................ 5
Institutes/Centers/Services/Other .................................................................................................................. 5
BioMed 21...................................................................................................................................................... 5
The BRIGHT Institute: ............................................................................................................................ 6
Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology (CGS_SB): ................................................................ 6
Center for the Investigation of Membrane Excitability Diseases (CIMED): .............................................. 6
Center for the Study of Itch (CSI): .......................................................................................................... 6
The Center for Women’s Infectious Disease Research (cWIDR) ............................................................ 7
Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease Center (DCDC): ................................................................................. 7
Hope Center Program on Protein Aggregation and Neurodegeneration (HPAN): ................................... 7
Center for Clinical Imaging Research (CCIR): ................................................................................................ 7
The Genome Institute (TGI) at Washington University School of Medicine: .................................................... 8
Institute of Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS): .................................................................................... 8
Center for Administrative Data Research (CADR): ................................................................................. 8
Center for Applied Research Sciences (CARS)...................................................................................... 9
Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMI): ............................................................................................. 9
Center for Clinical Research Ethics (CCRE): ......................................................................................... 9
Center for Community Engaged Research (CCER) ............................................................................. 10
Center for Economic Evaluation in Medicine (CEEM)........................................................................... 10
Clinical Research Training Center (CRTC)........................................................................................... 10
Clinical Research Unit .......................................................................................................................... 10
Clinical Trials Unit: ............................................................................................................................... 10
Comparative Effectiveness Research Center (CERC):......................................................................... 10
Council of Training Programs ............................................................................................................... 11
Dissemination and Implementation Research Core (DIRC) .................................................................. 11
Genome Technology Access Center (GTAC) and iPSC ....................................................................... 11
The Human & Mouse Linked Evaluation of Tumors (HAMLET) ............................................................ 11
Human Imaging Unit ............................................................................................................................ 11
1
Lifestyle Intervention Research Core (LIRC) ........................................................................................ 11
Novel Methodologies and Pilot and Collaborative Studies Program ..................................................... 11
Pediatric Clinical Research Unit (PCRU) .............................................................................................. 12
Proteomics & Mass Spectrometry Program (PMSP) ............................................................................ 12
Recruitment Enhancement Core (REC) ............................................................................................... 12
Regulatory Support Center (RSC) ........................................................................................................ 12
Research Design and Biostatistics Group (RDBG) ............................................................................... 12
Tissue Procurement Core (TPC) .......................................................................................................... 12
Translational Cardiovascular Biobank & Repository (TCBR) ................................................................ 13
Translational Research Methods & Analysis Center (TRAC) ................................................................ 13
Washington University Pediatric & Adolescent Ambulatory Research Consortium (WU PAARC) ......... 13
Center for Health Policy (CHP): ................................................................................................................... 13
Diabetes Research Center (DRC) ................................................................................................................ 13
Digestive Diseases Research Core Center (DDRCC): ................................................................................. 13
Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS) .................................................................................. 13
Institute for Public Health (IPH): ................................................................................................................... 14
Center for Community Health Partnerships .......................................................................................... 14
Center for Global Health and Infectious Disease (CGHID) ................................................................... 14
Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging .................................................................................................. 14
Public Health Data and Training Center ............................................................................................... 14
Investigational Drug Service (IDS) ............................................................................................................... 15
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR): ..................................................................................................... 15
Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC) ................................................................................ 15
Central Neuroimaging Data Archive (CNDA) ........................................................................................ 15
Clinical Research Lab (CRL) ................................................................................................................ 16
Cyclotron Facility.................................................................................................................................. 16
Magnetom Skyra Neuroimaging 3T MRI .............................................................................................. 16
MRI Facility .......................................................................................................................................... 16
Neuroimaging Informatics Analysis Center (NIAC) ............................................................................... 16
Pre-Clinical PET/CT Imaging Facility ................................................................................................... 16
Small-Animal Magnetic Resonance Facility.......................................................................................... 16
Molecular Microbiology Facilities .................................................................................................................. 17
The Molecular Microbiology Imaging Facility ........................................................................................ 17
Cytation 3 Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Reader ......................................................................................... 17
Media Services Core Facility ................................................................................................................ 17
Neurology Centers: ...................................................................................................................................... 17
Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center ................................................. 17
Center for Neuroimmunology and Neuroinfectious Diseases (CNND): ................................................. 17
2
MS Center............................................................................................................................................ 18
NeuroFibromatosis (NF) Center ........................................................................................................... 18
Pediatrics ..................................................................................................................................................... 18
Children’s Discovery Institute (CDI).............................................................................................................. 18
McDonnell Pediatric Cancer Center ..................................................................................................... 18
Center for Metabolism and Immunity: ................................................................................................... 18
Center for Pediatric Pulmonary Disease............................................................................................... 18
Congenital Heart Disease Center: ........................................................................................................ 18
Interdisciplinary Career Development and Translational Research in Pediatrics Program .................... 18
Siteman Cancer Center: ............................................................................................................................... 19
The Biologic Therapy Core Facility....................................................................................................... 19
Biostatistics Shared Resource ............................................................................................................. 19
The Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs (CHiiPs) ...................................... 19
Clinical Trials Core ............................................................................................................................... 19
Embryonic Stem Cell Core ................................................................................................................... 19
Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core .......................................................................... 20
High-Throughput Screening Core ........................................................................................................ 20
Imaging and Response Assessment Core (IRAC) ................................................................................ 20
Siteman Flow Cytometry: ..................................................................................................................... 20
Small Animal Cancer Imaging (SACI) .................................................................................................. 20
Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD) ................................................................. 20
Centers of Excellence ................................................................................................................................... 21
BJC Center for Clinical Excellence (CCE) ............................................................................................ 21
Center of Excellence in Health Communication Research (CEHCR) .................................................... 21
Midwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research: 21
Infrastructure ................................................................................................................................................. 21
Public Transit: .............................................................................................................................................. 21
Animal: ......................................................................................................................................................... 21
Computer Resources (DOM) ........................................................................................................................ 21
3
RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT
FACILITIES AND BUILDINGS
Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM):
WUSM has a rich history of success in research, education and patient care, earning it a reputation as one of
the premier medical schools in the world. WUSM is organized into 20 departments, 4 teaching and research
divisions and 7 graduate training divisions, and has a total of 1,983 full-time faculty and 1,349 students. Since
its founding in 1891, WUSM has trained nearly 8,000 physicians and has contributed groundbreaking
discoveries in many areas of medical research. WUSM is internationally known for research in neuroscience,
genetics, cardiovascular diseases, oncology, immunology, diagnostic imaging and many other areas. During
2014, over 100 faculty members held individual NIH Career Development Awards. In addition, WUSM has two
NIH-funded General Clinical Research Centers and nearly 30 other NIH-funded program project or center
grants, including a multidisciplinary Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences. These centers and
program projects reflect WUSM’s emphasis on collaborative multidisciplinary research and training.
WUSM is also recognized for its distinguished achievements in original research, 14 current faculty members
have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 26 belong to the Institute of Medicine, and 18 Nobel
laureates have been associated with the School of Medicine. The school was ranked in the top 6 for the past
three years, by US News & World Report, among the nation’s research-oriented medical schools. In 2014,
WUSM received $325 million in grants from the NIH, making it the fourth largest recipient of NIH dollars among
the 123 U.S. Medical Schools.
Washington University Danforth Campus (WUDC):
The George Warren Brown School of Social Work is a top-ranked research-intensive school of social work.
The faculty produces outstanding scholarly work and has a strong base of funding from a variety of public and
private sources. The school operates a key translational research center: the Advanced Center for Mental
Health Services Research, one of only 11 centers of its kind in the country and the only one that is part of a
social work school. This center works with community agencies to develop and test interventions designed to
improve the quality of mental health care. Trainees from the School have participated in education, training and
research career development programs through the Clinical Research Training Center (CRTC) and will
continue to participate through this training program. School of Social Work faculty participate as research
mentors and serve in leadership roles for the program’s steering committee.
BJC Healthcare (BJC):
BJC Healthcare is our institutional partner for healthcare delivery. BJC is one of the largest and most diverse
non-profit healthcare organizations in the U.S. with 13 hospitals in urban, suburban and rural settings, two U.S.
News and World Report “Top 10” hospitals on the WUSM Campus (Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s
Hospitals) and more than 100 delivery sites, including long-term care facilities, a home health agency and a
large physician group. In 2009, BJC staffed 3,475 beds and had 150,460 admissions, 461,182 emergency and
61,549 outpatient surgery visits. BJC facilities also collectively serve a broad mix of populations including
patients of all ages and ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, many of whom are in AHRQ priority
populations. The BJC Health System is recognized for its ability to integrate health services in a cost-efficient
manner, and provides an innovative medical data and imaging repository to enhance physicians’ access to
patient data. BJC was the recipient of the 1999 National Health Care Quality Award. The CDC has named
BJC a Center of Excellence in Hospital Epidemiology and a Prevention Epicenter. BJC and WUSM possess
sophisticated information systems, including award winning expert systems for infection control, medication
safety, and performance measurement.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH):
4
BJH is a 1,252 bed non-profit teaching hospital – the largest in Missouri. With a premier reputation in patient
care, medical education and community service, the hospital has been ranked among an elite group of the
nation’s best academic hospitals on the U.S. News and World Report Honor Roll since 1993. In 2015, BJH is
ranked tenth in the 2015 US News and World Report’s list of best hospitals. In 2003, it was the first hospital in
Missouri to be awarded Magnet status, nursing’s highest honor for clinical excellence. BJH provides clinical
experiences for medical students in all clinical departments. The 1,800 member medical staff includes full-time
faculty of Washington University, as well as private physicians. The medical staff is supported by a house staff
of more than 900 residents and fellows, in addition to professional nurses and technicians, and service and
support personnel. BJH is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care
Organizations.
Northwest Tower (NWT):
The eight-level Northwest Tower opened in September of 2006. This 200,000-square-foot facility provides
faculty and staff office space atop the St. Louis Children's Hospital garage. The Patient-Oriented Research
Unit occupies the tenth floor of the Northwest Tower. The 22,100 sq ft tenth floor has four conference rooms,
40 faculty offices, 118 staff and fellow cubicles, and various drug storage and copy/work areas.
St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH):
The focus of child health training and education within the Washington University Medical Center is the St.
Louis Children's Hospital (SLCH). This 264-bed Pediatric hospital is also the pediatric center of the 3,479
staffed bed BJC HealthCare System. The Children’s Hospital was founded in 1879 and most recently moved to
its present 12 story building in 1984. BJC HealthCare is the first health care system in the nation to integrate
an academic medical center with suburban, rural, and metropolitan-based health care facilities. The system
serves residents of Missouri and Southern Illinois with 13-member hospitals, seven nursing facilities, and one
retirement community. The hospital is the primary pediatric referral institution for individuals in the greater St.
Louis population (~15,000 admissions/year; including over ~52,000 emergency unit visits/year). The largest
Children’s Hospital in Missouri, the hospital maintains a 70-bed level III neonatal intensive care unit, a 36-bed
pediatric intensive care unit, and a 12 bed cardiac intensive care unit. All surgical subspecialties are
represented, including pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons with special emphasis in lung transplantation. St.
Louis Children’s Hospital has been consistently ranked among the top Children’s Hospitals in the United States
by U.S. News & World Report. In 2013-2016, the Children’s Hospital will undergo a 100 bed expansion and
integration of the labor and delivery service for the Washington University Medical Center Campus.
Center for Advanced Medicine (CAM):
The CAM, built in November 2001 as a new single site by Barnes-Jewish Hospital and WU, is an outpatient
ambulatory care facility. The building is purposely designed for outpatient diagnostics and procedures,
including a state-of-the-art surgicenter and a comprehensive multidisciplinary cancer center. The SCC
comprises 107,422 sq. feet within the CAM and houses a 61-chair/bed infusion center, investigational
pharmacy, clinical trials office and multidisciplinary outpatient practices. All adult outpatients being treated for
cancer are seen in this central facility and the oncology inpatient floors are immediately adjacent to the
outpatient floors dedicated for the SCC. The lower level houses radiation oncology, including nine linear
accelerators, full intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), brachytherapy, a Gamma Knife facility, the
Varian Trilogy system, and the TomoTherapy Hi-Art treatment unit. The Kling Center for Proton Therapy
opened in 2009. This is the first implementation of a single vault proton therapy center and one of only six
proton therapy centers in the U.S. The SCC also provides patients with educational resources and support
through a street-level Health and Cancer Information Center. The SCC has been designed to be a building
within a building, having its own unique identity, lobby elevators and waiting areas.
INSTITUTES/CENTERS/SERVICES/OTHER
BioMed 21: http://biomed21.wustl.edu/about
5
The largest building ever constructed on the campus of WUSM is the home base for BioMed 21, the
University’s innovative research initiative designed to speed scientific discovery and apply breakthroughs to
patient care rapidly. The building is supported by a $30 million gift to Washington University’s medical school
from BJC HealthCare and is named the BJC Institute of Health at Washington University. The BJC Institute of
Health at Washington University provides laboratory space for seven Interdisciplinary Research Centers (IRCs)
of BioMed 21. The seven IRCs, which include researchers from a variety of fields, are devoted to cancer,
cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, infectious diseases and membrane excitability disorders, which
encompass neural, cardiac, and other conditions. BioMed 21 also defines new spaces to house promising
research and educational programs, including:
• 240,000 square feet of new research space in the new BJC Institute of Health at Washington University
School of Medicine in the center of the medical campus
• The Farrell Learning and Teaching Center, an important teaching component of BioMed 21
• A 40,000-gross-square-foot facility designed to spur development of mouse models for human diseases
• A 32,000-square-foot data center to meet the massive computing needs of The Genome Institute
• 15,000 square feet of space added to the Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology to support
new investigators
• 7,000 square feet of renovated space to house the Center for the Study of Itch
The BRIGHT Institute: The mission of the BRIGHT Institute (Bridging Research with Imaging, Genomics and
High Throughput) is to provide researchers with the very latest advanced imaging technologies for studying
cancer from the level of molecules to the entire body. Its ultimate goal is to foster discoveries to explain the
roots of cancer and to promote translation of those insights into better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent
cancer. BRIGHT's capabilities open up entirely new avenues of investigation to help scientists more quickly
and effectively understand the physiologic changes that lead to cancer, assess and analyze the effects of
those changes, and accelerate these studies to develop treatments much more quickly. BRIGHT's arsenal
includes: 1) Imaging techniques and agents that allow scientists to watch cancers develop at the molecular and
cellular level and to watch treatments at work in live test subjects; 2) High-throughput screening to
simultaneously probe the effects of compounds or proteins of interest, greatly accelerating the pace of
research; 3) Advanced approaches for modeling diseases and testing therapies in animals, and 4) Functional
genomics capabilities to study how gene mutations associated with cancer affect other genes, proteins and
processes throughout the cell. To encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations, BRIGHT includes faculty from
multiple departments in both basic and applied sciences. The Institute interacts closely with The Genome
Institute, a leader in the sequencing of the first cancer patient genome.
Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology (CGS_SB): The CGS_SB is studying the role of genes in
human health, including the influence of the millions of microbes that live in and on humans. The center also
fosters development and application of new analytic methods for studying the disease families embraced by
BioMed 21. The CGS_SB strives to develop new ways to address global health problems, including childhood
malnutrition, obesity and antibiotic resistance; to discover new technologies for understanding how genetic
variations impact health worldwide; and to create innovative programs to prepare the next generation of
scientists.
Center for the Investigation of Membrane Excitability Diseases (CIMED): CIMED scientists combine
expertise in physiology and pathophysiology with advanced tools in biochemistry, electrophysiology, imaging
and genomics. Their ultimate goal is to make important advances in understanding ion channel malfunctions
common to many diseases and to translate these insights into improved treatments and therapeutics that can
be applied broadly. They also hope to identify links to diseases not previously known to be related to electrical
signaling.
Center for the Study of Itch (CSI): The Center for the Study of Itch (CSI) is dedicated to bringing scientists
and clinicians together to study the causes of chronic itch and, ultimately, to translate those findings into better
treatments for chronic sufferers. The CSI is the world's first research center dedicated to understanding and
addressing chronic itch. Its goals include expanding the existing research capacity for itch, significantly
6
increasing the understanding of skin-nerve interactions, fostering collaboration between basic research and
clinical studies, and providing innovative educational programs for those interested in studying chronic itch.
The Center for Women’s Infectious Disease Research (cWIDR): The cWIDR is investigating common, but
often overlooked infections that prey on women by building a new, innovative field at the intersection of
women’s health, microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases. Their mission is to improve the lives of
women and their families by discovering key processes underlying infectious diseases and translating their
discoveries into effective treatments and preventive therapies. Core investigators in the cWIDR are increasing
the search for new ways to treat pathogenic diseases. Researching ways to block disease, they are
discovering crucial steps in: diseases that cause preterm birth or birth defects; life threatening infections in
newborn infants; vaginal infections; acute and chronic urinary tract infections; interstitial cystitis; sexually
transmitted diseases; and toxic shock syndrome. Center leadership is building the cWIDR to be a vibrant and
supportive community of researchers that aim to improve the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of infectious
diseases to enhance human health. These goals will be accomplished by: actively recruiting new faculty
scientists to the cWIDR; engaging established basic science and clinical faculty to join the membership;
initiating collaborative interactions between members; and encouraging the translation of research findings into
the development of new therapies. The cWIDR administers several shared resources and facilities to support
basic science and translational research and the discovery of new therapies for infectious diseases. These
facilities provide access to specialized equipment, expertise, and service that might not be otherwise available
to individual investigators or laboratories. The cWIDR and its laboratories provide education, research training,
and employment opportunities for physicians, scientists, and students at all levels, including undergraduates,
medical students, graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and clinical and research fellows.
Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease Center (DCDC): The Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease Center (DCDC) is
dedicated to finding better methods for diagnosing, treating and preventing cardiovascular disease in people
with diabetes. Because roughly two-thirds of the 25 million Americans who have diabetes will die of heart or
vascular disease, the DCDC's work holds tremendous implications for improving human health. The DCDC
brings together physicians and scientists from cardiology, endocrinology, nutrition, molecular biology,
chemistry, radiology, physics and other areas of biomedicine. They focus on studying the roots of the diabetes,
particularly understanding why cardiovascular disease is more prevalent and more aggressive in people with
diabetes compared with non-diabetics. DCDC's major goal is to find ways to identify heart and vascular
disease in diabetes very early, when it is still most treatable, devise better treatments, and ultimately, develop
effective methods to prevent disease altogether.
Hope Center Program on Protein Aggregation and Neurodegeneration (HPAN): The Hope Center
Program on Protein Aggregation and Neurodegeneration (HPAN) aims to find diagnostic tools and effective
treatments for neurodegenerative diseases by investigating their underlying causes. Central to their work is
studying a process called protein misfolding, known to contribute to nerve degeneration associated with aging
and disease. Each neurodegenerative disease stems from aggregation of a different protein: Alzheimer's from
the proteins amyloid beta and tau, Huntington's from huntingtin, Parkinson's from alpha synuclein and so on.
HPAN scientists hope to elucidate the misfolding process and other issues shared by multiple neurological
diseases, find solutions to correct or prevent them, and apply solutions broadly to address a wide range of
diseases.
Center for Clinical Imaging Research (CCIR):
The Center for Clinical Imaging Research (CCIR) is an innovative imaging facility fully dedicated to clinical
imaging research. CCIR provides comprehensive imaging technologies and expertise for basic and
translational clinical research. Its location in the West Pavilion of Barnes-Jewish Hospital allows researchers
and their study participants — both inpatients and outpatients — to acquire imaging studies without ever
leaving the hospital. The 9,000-square-foot CCIR provides a full selection of leading-edge imaging equipment,
including a new state-of-the-art simultaneous acquisition positron emission tomography-magnetic resonance
imaging (PET-MRI) scanner that allows a patient to undergo PET and MRI examination at the same time. This
technology allows novel research in Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular disease and oncologic imaging, and
at a reduced radiation dose. Other equipment includes two high-powered magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
7
systems, a 64-slice high temporal resolution computed tomography (CT) scanner and an advanced PET-CT
scanner.
The Genome Institute (TGI) at Washington University School of Medicine:
The Genome Institute at WUSM is a world leader in genomics research. TGI was established in August 1993,
with a $29.7 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National
Institutes of Health. The Institute helped lead the Human Genome Project, an international effort to decode all
three billion letters of our genetic blueprint, ultimately contributing 25 percent of the finish sequence. TGI
continues to advance the state-of-the-art genome sequencing and its application to human health. As one of
only three NIH funded large-scale sequencing centers in the United States, TGI is helping to lead the way in
high speed, comprehensive genomics. The Genome Institute offers opportunities for undergraduate (summer
program) and graduate students (a year-long program) in Genomics Research. Lectures, workshops, events
and tours with local schools and other agencies are offered frequently throughout the year.
Institute of Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS):
The NIH/NCRR Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), was awarded in September 2007 to
Washington University and competitively renewed in June 2012. The CTSA conjoined existing grants (GCRC
and NIH Roadmap K12, K30 and T32 grants), regional partnerships with academic, healthcare, community and
scientific institutions and 15 key Program Functions to form the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences
(ICTS). In conjunction with the national CTSA goals, the ICTS provides infrastructure (services, personnel,
space, equipment) needed to stimulate and facilitate the performance of safe and ethical interdisciplinary
clinical and translational research and to provide an environment to train the next cadre of clinical and
translational investigators in order to reduce the time it takes for laboratory discoveries to become treatments
for patients. Other ICTS programs assist in the publication of findings and/or connection to community and
commercial partners. Also fundamental to the ICTS are multidisciplinary clinical research training and career
development programs for predoctoral students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty, including specialized
expertise to conduct child health studies.
Investigators are able to draw upon ICTS Cores and services for assistance during all phases of a clinical
and translational research study, from protocol development to publication of results. Biostatistical, ethical and
regulatory consultations and reviews assist in early planning and protocol development. Pilot funding,
participant recruitment services, access to specialized research units, biospecimen banking and biomedical
informatics expertise facilitate study implementation. Other ICTS programs are designed to assist in the
publication of findings and/or connection to community and commercial partners. Multidisciplinary clinical
research training and career development for predoctoral students, house-staff, postdoctoral fellows and
faculty, including specialized expertise to conduct studies in children, is also fundamental to the ICTS. ICTS
Cores and Services include:
Center for Administrative Data Research (CADR): CADR, founded in 2009, houses and maintains
numerous large administrative datasets and provides data management expertise to users in the WU ICTS
community. The table below outlines the data sets that can be used by the program scholars.
Database
NCI Surveillance Epidemiology
and End Results (SEER) –
Medicare (breast CA )
Setting/Types of Files
MEDPAR, Outpt, Carrier
Claims, Home Health,
Hospice, DME
CMS Medicaid eXtract (MAX)
files – MO, IL, CA, FL, GA, TX
Inpt, Other Therapy,
Personal summary,
Prescription Drug
Inpt, Outpt, Carrier
Claims, SNF, DME,
Beneficiary Summary,
Chronic Condition
Inpatient
CMS Chronic Condition
Warehouse
CMS Medicare 100% Inpatient
SAF
Years
1995-2002 (SEER) /
1995-2004
(Medicare claims
files)
1999-2005
Population
76,199 breast cancer
Medicare patients
1999-2010
3.9 million Medicare
enrollees
2003
38.2 million Medicare
patients
~2.2-3.0 Medicaid enrollees
8
AHRQ HCUP Nationwide
Inpatient Sample (NIS)
Inpatient
1998-2011
~7.1-8.2M (unweighted);
~34.8-39.5M (weighted)
hospital discharges
~25.7-28.6M (unweighted);
~120-129M (weighted) ED
visits
~1.9M-3.4M (unweighted);
~6.3-6.6M (weighted)
hospital discharges
129K-3.9M hospital
discharges per year per
state
AHRQ HCUP Nationwide
Emergency Department
Sample (NEDS)
AHRQ HCUP Kids’ Inpatient
Database (KIDS)
Emergency department
2006-2010
Inpatient
1997, 2000, 2003,
2006, 2009
AHRQ HCUP State Inpatient
Databases (SID) – AZ, AR, CA,
CO, FL, HI, IA, KY, MD, MA,
MI, NE, NJ, NM, NY, NC, SC,
UT, VT, WA, WI
AHRQ HCUP State Emergency
Department Databases (SEDD)
– AZ, CA, FL, HI, IA, MD, MA,
NE, NJ, NY, NC, UT, VT
AHRQ HCUP State Ambulatory
Surgery Databases (SASD) –
CA, FL, MD, MI, NE, NJ, NY,
NC
American Hospital Association
(AHA) Annual Survey
Database
Nielson Claritas
Inpatient
Varies by state;
~2000-2011
Emergency department
Varies by state;
~2000-2011
223K-9.9M ED visits per
year per state
Ambulatory surgery
Varies by state;
~2003-2011
180K-3.0M ambulatory
surgery visits per year per
state
Hospital facility
2000, 2004, 2006,
2008, 2009, 2010
n/a
Demographic data
n/a
Truven Health Analytics
MarketScan® Commercial
Claims Database
Database
Inpatient, outpatient,
outpatient drugs
2004, 2005, 2006,
2008
2006-2010
~31-49 million
enrollees/year
Center for Applied Research Sciences (CARS): The Center for Applied Research Sciences (CARS)
has been established within the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) to increase access to
specialized clinical research units where investigators can have access to state-of-the-art resources for
conducting efficient, safe, and ethical studies in research volunteers. The CARS is redesigning existing clinical
research units into a coordinated and integrated research service that will share resources and enable leadingedge clinical and translational research activities to be conducted across a spectrum of study populations,
research designs and physical sites. In addition, the CARS will serve as an important training site for young
investigators and allied health professionals who are pursuing careers in clinical research. The CARS
combines part of the Center for Clinical Studies, the Adult General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and the
Pediatric GCRC to enhance services and efficiencies. The CARS venues for research are the Clinical Trials
Unit, Clinical Research Unit, and the Pediatric Clinical Research Unit. The Center will also work closely with
the Brain, Behavior and Performance Unit and the Human Imaging Unit to facilitate coordinated interactions
among all 5 Units.
Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMI): This ICTS Center is led by a group of active and experienced
bioinformatics experts and integrates elements of Medical Informatics, Bioinformatics and Computational
Sciences. It offers industry-standard, enterprise-class infrastructure and software tools to store, integrate,
query, analyze and visualize complex clinical and molecular data sets. The CBMI provides essential data
management / analysis and collaborative tools and comprehensive training resources to promote collaborative
studies and facilitate the identification of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and the subsequent
development of personalized therapies.
Center for Clinical Research Ethics (CCRE): The CCRE provides a comprehensive consultation network
that assists ICTS investigators and programs in addressing clinical research ethics within clinical research
protocols and policies. In addition, the Center’s faculty provides the responsible conduct of research courses
and seminars and will develop and provide educational programs that respond to specific needs.
9
Center for Community Engaged Research (CCER): The CCER is a transformative initiative that fosters
collaborative research partnerships between and among the community at large, community organizations,
ICTS academic institutions, community-based health providers, and researchers. Specifically, the CCER
enhances and expands the practice-based research networks (PBRN) of community practitioners affiliated with
WU, provide training to actively engage community practitioners in clinical and translational research, train
students and researchers on valued approaches to properly conduct community-based participatory research
in culturally diverse populations using strategies developed collaboratively with our partners, establish core
support functions to facilitate the participation of underrepresented populations in research by reducing barriers
to participation in research, by increasing public trust, and by making research opportunities more accessible.
The CCER also assesses community needs for services and perceptions about research, work with community
practitioners, provider organizations, health agencies, policy makers and trainees to translate community
needs into clinical research, and to speed the application of these results to practice, and link the community to
appropriate services (social, educational, and medical).
Center for Economic Evaluation in Medicine (CEEM): The CEEM provides expertise and support to
scholars and investigators who hope to improve dissemination of the therapies or programs they are
developing by providing policy makers with additional information. Faculty from the Medical School, Institute
for Public Health, Business School and BJC utilize administrative cost accounting data from BJC, CADR, and
other data sources to measure and compare healthcare costs of various treatments and procedures while
controlling for underlying diseases and co-morbidities. CEEM staff utilize cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit
analyses, econometrics, simulations, modeling of disease processes, and clinical decision support tools to
determine attributable costs and measure the financial impact and outcomes of healthcare delivery.
Clinical Research Training Center (CRTC): The CRTC houses the KL2 Career Development Award, the
Paul Calabresi K12 in Clinical Oncology, the TL1 Pre-doctoral Program, the Postdoctoral Mentored Training
Program in Clinical Research (MTPCI), the Cancer Genomics and Outcomes Research STRENGTH R25
Program, the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation Patient Safety and Quality Fellowship, and the Advanced
Summer Program for Investigation and Research Education (ASPIRE). The CRTC provides didactic curricula
leading to a Certificate or a Master’s Degree of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) or Applied Health
Behavior Research (AHBR) Degree and has a wealth of experience in developing innovative curriculum for
scholars and scholars at all stages of their medical careers. The CRTC has dedicated space (4,400 Sq ft.) and
staff to support the clinical and translational research training programs at WU and its regional CTSA partners.
Housed within the hospital setting, the CRTC has dedicated classrooms, educational software to digitally
record and archive training programs, technology to provide distance learning and online tools and databases
to facilitate scholar selection, and evaluate faculty mentors, scholars and training programs. The CRTC
infrastructure will be leveraged to create new curricula, classes, and mentored training for the program
scholars.
Clinical Research Unit: The in-patient and out-patient Clinical Research Unit (CRU) for studies that require
more intensive nursing services than the studies performed in Washington University's Clinical Trials Unit is
structured to provide services 24 hours/day, 7 days a week, when needed. Resources and services include:
space, research nursing services, specimen processing and short term storage, bio-nutrition services,
metabolic kitchen for meal preparation and body composition analysis.
Clinical Trials Unit: The out-patient Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) offers dedicated research space, equipment and
nursing support for a wide range of clinical studies, particularly multi-center clinical trials.
Comparative Effectiveness Research Center (CERC): The CERC trains investigators with specialized
expertise to identify best practices in the prevention, treatment, and monitoring of clinical conditions and health
delivery systems. The Center offers learning opportunities for WU investigators to perform research that will
provide new information addressing current evidence gaps and to translate existing knowledge into
improvements in health care delivery and outcomes. The CERC offers monthly comparative effectiveness
seminars, a yearly comparative effectiveness and shared decision making symposium, resources and
information about CER funding opportunities and national CER conferences.
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Council of Training Programs: A Council of Training Programs, consisting of the WU PIs of federallysupported centers and –supported training grants, respectively, has been established. These ICTS Councils
meet on a regular basis to coordinate efforts around issues of common interest, to avoid duplication, and to
develop joint strategic and infrastructure initiatives around clinical research and clinical research training, in
conjunction with the ICTS.
Dissemination and Implementation Research Core (DIRC): This core provides methodological
expertise to advance translational research to move efficacious health practices from clinical knowledge into
routine, real-world use. The DIRC focuses on research and its translational application to encourage the
adoption of best practices in the community. The DIRC has an active research program aimed at developing
research-enhancing services, tools and measures for use by investigators who want to conduct implementation
(T3-T4) research, as well as the methodological expertise required to utilize them in proposed research.
For Cancer focus: This core seeks to reduce the gap between cancer discoveries and change in clinical and
public health practice. The Dissemination and Implementation Core accelerates the public health impact of the
SCC work through research. It provides services for study design and execution aimed at determining the best
way to disseminate and implement the results of research trials. This core leverages resources available
across WU including those of the ICTS, the CEHCR, and the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis (CDC
funded). Goals are to increase the quantity, quality, and sustainability of dissemination and implementation
research, to identify specific approaches and tools to enhance the dissemination of SCC discoveries, and to
apply effective strategies to disseminate evidence-based discoveries from SCC into clinical and public health
practice.
Genome Technology Access Center (GTAC) and iPSC: The Genome Technology Access Center (GTAC), a
component of the ICTS Genomic Medicine Program, was established by the Washington University
Department of Genetics to provide cutting-edge and cost effective sequencing and analysis technologies to
local colleagues and external investigators. The GTAC offers fee-for-service sample preparation, data
generation, bioinformatics analysis, and intellectual support for microarray, PCR, and high-throughput
sequencing studies. The iPSC core facility, also under the supervision of the Department of Genetics, seeks to
enhance the research efforts of Washington University by facilitating the use of induced pluripotent stem cell
technology. It supports investigators in all aspects of the generation, maintenance, and differentiation of
induced pluripotent stem cells.
The Human & Mouse Linked Evaluation of Tumors (HAMLET): The HAMLET Core occupies
approximately 381 sq. ft. of space located in the Southwest Tower of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and houses the
following pieces of equipment: Microscope; Dissecting microscope; Fluorescence microscope; Laminar flow
hood; Three Refrigerators; -200C freezer; Liquid nitrogen tank; Homogenizer.
Human Imaging Unit: (See CCIR above)
Lifestyle Intervention Research Core (LIRC): Through the NIH CTSA American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 Administrative Supplement, the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences
(ICTS) established a new core to help ICTS investigators implement an effective lifestyle intervention program
into their research studies. The Lifestyle Intervention Research Core (LIRC) supports: 1) Specialized nutrition
services, including nutrition assessment, education, and counseling; recipe development; nutrient analysis; and
development of menus/formulas for diet intervention, 2) Behavioral assessment and therapy for diet and
activity lifestyle changes, 3) Training in sensory evaluation techniques and lifestyle behavior-change therapy,
and 4) Image processing and analysis services to monitor the effects of lifestyle intervention on body
composition.
Novel Methodologies and Pilot and Collaborative Studies Program: Through internal RFAs, this
pilot program enables ICTS members and program scholars to apply for seed funds to support the
development of innovative clinical research methodologies or to conduct pilot research projects. Investigators
are encouraged to use these funds to create interdisciplinary teams of investigators with common interests in
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either a clinical or translational research methodology or a specific scientific area of investigation. These
research grants typically range from $20,000 to $100,000. This program’s leadership and the CRTC will work
with ICTS to ensure that a significant portion of these grants are available for appointed program scholars and
investigators.
Pediatric Clinical Research Unit (PCRU): The Pediatric Clinical Research Unit (PCRU) provides the
following services for clinical research projects conducted with children: space, phlebotomy, research nursing
services, specimen processing and short term storage, and bio-nutrition.
Proteomics & Mass Spectrometry Program (PMSP): The ICTS Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry
Program (PMSP) offers next generation mass spectrometry and data analysis tools for global and targeted
protein quantification in biological fluids and tissues. Consultation on experimental design, selection of
analytical platforms and sample preparation are provided. The program offers integrated proteomic workflows
for discovery and verification of protein targets in biological fluids and tissues. Development of high-precision,
quantitative assays is available using antibody (high-sensitivity ELISA) or antibody independent methods
(stable isotope dilution MS). Phosphoproteomics of tissue samples and quantitative analysis of specific protein
phosphorylation sites has recently been added as a service.
Recruitment Enhancement Core (REC): The REC takes responsibility for enhancing recruitment;
university wide, by passing a steady stream of qualified participants to the PIs and study coordinators. The
goal of the REC is to free up the time of PIs and study coordinators, so they can focus on consenting and
enrolling participants, while recruitment specialists spend the time identifying interested, qualified participants.
The REC delivers systematic, data-driven and strategic support to optimally recruit and retain eligible research
participants (to include women and underrepresented minorities) while ensuring regulatory compliance and the
highest ethical standards in participant recruitment.
Regulatory Support Center (RSC): The Regulatory Support Center (RSC) consists of the Regulatory
Core, the Participant Advocacy and Ombudsman Core and the Recruitment Enhancement Core (REC). The
Center provides Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) investigators with guidance and
assistance with protocol development, IRB applications, developing clinical trial budgets, and establishing and
meeting study recruitment targets (including adequate participation by women and underrepresented
minorities).
Research Design and Biostatistics Group (RDBG): The RDBG guides clinical study design, data
collection, data management and statistical analysis through consultation, mentoring and training of ICTS
investigators and trainees. Biostatistics faculty assist from protocol / proposal preparation to manuscript
development and train master’s level statisticians in R programming for cutting edge statistical computing and
graphics. Services available to ICTS members include: support preparation of protocol / proposal, reviewing
scholar projects with CRTC scholars and their mentors, triaging requests to other appropriate methodological
and quantitative ICTS investigators, consulting with investigators conducting their own data analyses,
conducting data analyses, creating data management systems for study data, consulting on the creation of
study forms, and developing new instruments and statistical approaches.
Tissue Procurement Core (TPC): The Tissue Procurement Core (TPC) within the Institute of Clinical and
Translational Sciences (ICTS) houses the following pieces of equipment: Four specimen freezing baths (two
units maintained in the Surgical Pathology frozen section suites); Four ultralow mechanical freezers (one which
remains empty at all times and off-site as a back-up); Twelve liquid nitrogen inventory systems; Two cryostats;
Tissue processor; Paraffin embedding station; Microtome; Cytocentrifuge and two clinical centrifuges;
Equipment and supplies for standard histological staining; Standard light microscope; Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100
capillary electrophoresis system; Two Nanodrop fiber optic spectrophotometers; Pixcell II laser-capture
microdissection microscope available for investigator use; Biospecimen data entry and tracking is now
accomplished using the web-based caTissue tool, a caBIG® application that accesses a database on the
WUCON network and is maintained by the Bioinformatics Core; Photomicroscopic capabilities; and Ability to
access digital slide scanner that is maintained and funded in a separate laboratory.
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Translational Cardiovascular Biobank & Repository (TCBR): The Translational Cardiovascular
Biobank & Repository (TCBR) occupies laboratory space in the Clinical Sciences Research Building which
houses the following equipment: Sanyo MDF-U74VC -80 freezers, Sanyo MDF U76VC -80 freezer, CryoGurad
CG2 CS liquid nitrogen vapor phase freezer, Roper RT18GKXWW00 refrigerator/freezer, Hacker-Bright CLINIRF ultra low rapid freezer unit, Shandon Histobath 2 freezing unit, Eppendorf 5702R centrifuge, BeckmanCoulter Allegra X-30 centrifuge, Napco 320-6 incubator, MilliQ Advantage A-10 water purification system, HP
Compaq 6005 Pro computer, Brady BP-P1300 bar code printer.
Translational Research Methods & Analysis Center (TRAC): Cross- and inter-disciplinary
consultation within TRAC enables investigators access to and coordinated hand off of services across the
entire spectrum of the research project from study design to implementation. The core provides expertise and
services in qualitative methods and data analysis areas related to behavioral science, epidemiology, health
education and communication, program evaluation, psychological quality-of-life assessments, and geocoding
and spatial statistics. Service examples include survey design, interview development and programming,
research data transcription and program evaluation.
Washington University Pediatric & Adolescent Ambulatory Research Consortium (WU
PAARC): WU PAARC initiates and conducts research studies and collaborates with other investigators to
design and implement studies in the community setting. Community practitioners provide input to identify study
questions and ensure that network studies are relevant to clinical practice and feasible to complete in the office
setting.
Center for Health Policy (CHP):
The Center serves as the central coordinating body for health policy research at WU by: 1) identifying key
issues then designing, conducting and disseminating research and analyses aimed at understanding and
developing policies that will lead to improved health care; 2) developing and implementing educational
experiences in health policy at WU and elsewhere; and 3) sponsoring conferences, symposia, etc. The Center
provides funding for research studies and analyses, and assists faculty in obtaining external funding,
identifying opportunities for collaboration and providing access to relevant databases, consultative expertise
and information sources.
Diabetes Research Center (DRC)
The mission of the Diabetes Research Center (DRC) is to support and enhance research in diabetes and
related metabolic diseases through expert Biomedical Research Cores, a vibrant Pilot & Feasibility Program
and a dynamic Enrichment Program, all of which address the evolving needs of diabetes investigators. The
WUMS DRC Research Base is organized in three Focus Groups: Metabolic Regulation, Complications, and
Islet Biology & Immunology. Investigators from each of these groups participate in DRC programs that address
two central, interacting scientific themes—a) Approaches Across the Translational Spectrum, and b)
Prevention of Diabetes Complications
.
Digestive Diseases Research Core Center (DDRCC):
The overarching mission of this center is to advance research in digestive disease with a focus on interactions
between host and environment. The WU-DDRCC seeks to advance the health of patients with digestive
diseases by supporting enabling technology and promoting the basic and translational research interests of its
50 FULL + 21 ASSOCIATE members. These interests are organized around three major themes, including:
(1) Host-microbial interactions, inflammation and mucosal immunity; (2) Stem cells, development, epithelial
renewal, and cancer biology; (3) Nutrient transport, metabolism and signaling.
Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS)
DBBS provides a successful model of interdisciplinary research training and source of postdoctoral candidates
for this program. The DBBS is a graduate educational consortium that includes faculty affiliated with basic
science departments in the Medical School and College of Arts and Sciences, organized into twelve graduate
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programs. These programs emphasize a broad, interdisciplinary approach to the investigation of the most
important questions in biology. More than 500 students are currently pursuing Ph.D. degrees through the
DBBS. Graduate study is highly individualized, with the unique feature that each graduate student is free to
choose any of over 300 faculty members for her/his dissertation research. Each of the 12 programs within
DBBS establishes its own requirements for earning the PhD degree. Washington University's Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences grants the degree. A listing of the course work requirements for the individual programs
can be obtained at the DBBS web site. The DBBS and the Medical School also support the largest Medical
Scientist Training Program (MSTP) in the country. The 194 trainees in the MSTP are young physician
scientists uniquely positioned for future clinical research careers.
Institute for Public Health (IPH):
The IPH is a university-wide initiative to foster public health scholarship and programs across the institution.
The vision for public health at WU is to improve community and international health through the creation of new
knowledge, the application and translation of science, and the training of advanced academic and practice
leaders in public health. The IPH includes diverse research centers with interests relevant to HSR, IOM, and
AHRQ priority areas and vulnerable populations. IPH faculty members have expertise in several key areas
relevant to the program including: communication science, health behavior, community-based research, health
disparities, health policy, systems approaches, and implementation science.
Center for Community Health Partnerships: Their mission is to enable beneficial community-academic
partnerships that effectively address the health needs of the St. Louis community. Specifically, this center 1)
Serves as a resource center for students, faculty and community partners to facilitate collaborative health
initiatives; 2) Builds and sustains community partnerships; 3) Develops a coordinated approach to community
health initiatives across campus; 4) Provides training and education on effective community engagement
strategies; and 5) Expands resources and support for faculty pursuing community-engaged scholarly work.
Center for Global Health and Infectious Disease (CGHID): CGHID was initiated in 2012 and is supported by
the Departments of Medicine, Molecular Microbiology and Pathology and Immunology. It serves as the hub for
numerous initiatives related to global infectious diseases. The Global Health Center at the Institute for Public
Health has identified infectious diseases as one of five key program areas in global health with regards to
expertise, leadership, and activities. Washington University School of Medicine has a broad infectious diseases
research portfolio that focuses on disease pathogenesis, immunology, pathogen genomics, as well as
diagnosis and treatment. Faculty and research teams from the Departments of Genetics, Medicine, Molecular
Microbiology, Pathology and Immunology and Pediatrics are actively engaged, and particular strengths include
studies of virulence factors, host susceptibility, immune responses, drug discovery, pathogen discovery, and
host pathogen interactions for many important infectious diseases. The Center’s mission is for Washington
University to be recognized as an international authority in global infectious diseases by fostering a
transdisciplinary program in education, research, and service that will make significant contributions to
prevention and treatment of global infectious diseases, thereby improving the health and well-being of people
throughout the world.
Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging: The Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging works toward a global
society where all older adults have maximum opportunity for health, security, and engagement. The Center
connects individuals and organizations across disciplines to: 1) Conduct innovative research and ensure its
translation into practice; 2) Expand education on issues relevant to individual and population aging; 3) Support
aging initiatives throughout St. Louis and around the world.
Public Health Data and Training Center: The goal of the Public Health Data and Training Center is to put
public health data into action by promoting its effective use in research, practice, and policy. To this end, the
center’s key strategies are to: 1) Build the capacity of students, faculty and community partners to use and
interpret data; 2) Stimulate transdisciplinary collaboration to address specific public health issues; 3) Provide
centralized access to diverse public health datasets; 4) Attract and train the next generation of public health
researchers; and 5) Create opportunities to share important public health information with the community.
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Investigational Drug Service (IDS)
The Investigational Drug Service (IDS) at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) has the necessary experienced
personnel (research pharmacists and technicians) and facilities for receipt, storage, dispensing and inventory
of study products. The IDS pharmacy occupies ~2,760 square feet and is inclusive of areas for sterile
compounding as well as handling and preparation of viral/bacterial based products. All medications are stored
within Pyxis machines for additional medication security. The IDS pharmacy maintains temperature-controlled
refrigerators (2-8C), freezers (-20C and -80C) and ambient storage with temperatures monitored continuously
via a central monitoring system. The facility is restricted-access and requires keycard for entry. The pharmacy
has extensive experience with investigational drug management for research studies and is available around
the clock every day of the year.
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR):
MIR provides a full range of diagnostic radiology procedures, including conventional radiography,
ultrasonography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, MIR provides nuclear
medicine examinations (including positron emission tomography [PET]) and interventional radiology
procedures. The MIR faculty consists of 73 full-time academic physicians who are board certified in radiology
and/or nuclear medicine, as well as 45 PhD scientists, including physicists, chemists, and computer scientists.
MIR is organized into three divisions: Diagnostic Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Radiological Sciences.
Approximately 618,000 diagnostic imaging examinations, 39,000 nuclear medicine studies, and 31,000
interventional radiology procedures are performed annually at MIR’s facilities at Barnes-Jewish Hospital north
and south campuses, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital and Barnes-Jewish
St. Peters Hospital. Over the years, MIR has pioneered techniques and procedures that have become
milestones in radiological history: from the development of the first diagnostic test for gallbladder disease to the
development of the first PET scanners. The diagnostic radiology equipment at the medical center includes 9
CT scanners (including 64-slice and 16-slice MDCT scanners), 11 MRI scanners (including 5 devoted to
research), 16 ultrasound machines, 6 mammography units, 7 interventional radiology systems, and 3 neurointerventional radiology systems. Imaging equipment for nuclear medicine, includes a Siemens Biograph LSO
dual-slice PET/CT scanner, a Siemens/CTI ECAT EXACT PET scanner, a Siemens/CTI ECAT HR+ PET
scanner, 15 gamma cameras (11 SPECT, 2 planar, and 4 mobile). Extensive computer hardware and PACS
systems are available to support these imaging techniques.
Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC): The Center for High-Performance Computing (CHPC)
provides the resources and expertise to tackle any computationally-intense research project undertaken by the
Washington University research community. Located in the university's Genome Institute's 16,000-sq-ft Tier 4
data center at the medical school, the CHPC offers users access to ~1,800 computing cores, 10TB of memory
and 19TFLOP/s of computing power as well as high-speed networking, bulk storage and technical support. Our
service is free to members of contributing departments at the medical school and Danforth Campus. We exist
to facilitate the production of science. Since our inception in 2010, we have processed over 3.8 million
research jobs. We have processed ~20 million processors' hours of work. This would take a single PC-core
approximately 2,300 years to accomplish.
Central Neuroimaging Data Archive (CNDA): The CNDA is a resource for managing study data collected by
the Washington University neuroimaging community. It includes a secure database, automated pipelines for
processing managed data, and tools for exploring and accessing the data. The archive currently stores over
25,000 individual scans from all major modalities. It also manages an extensible set of non-imaging data ,
including neuropsychological, clinical, biomarker, genetic, and behavioral data. The CNDA is hosted by the
Neuroinformatics Research Group (NRG) and is the site of the NRG flagship installation of XNAT, an opensource software package for managing neuroimaging and related data.Researchers who use the CNDA also
have the capability to create their own custom pipelines to handle specific image-processing tasks central to
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their research. As our most heavily used instance of XNAT, the CNDA’s user group provides invaluable
feedback toward the ongoing development and improvement of the XNAT system.
Clinical Research Lab (CRL): The Clinical Research Lab (CRL) provides coordination services to support the
basic and clinical research of Washington University investigators. Using advanced imaging and information
technology systems, the CRL assisted in the training, design, execution, and analysis of basic and translational
science.
Cyclotron Facility: The Cyclotron Facility provides PET isotopes, radiochemicals, radiotracers, and
radiopharmaceuticals to the research and medical communities for use in research and clinical practice. In
conjunction with its Radionuclide Production Laboratory and new, state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice
facility, the Cyclotron Facility continues a more than 70-year history of producing isotopes for medical and
biologic research.
Magnetom Skyra Neuroimaging 3T MRI: The Magnetom is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner
dedicated to the collection of brain-related research. It is available to investigators from within and outside of
Washington University. The scanner, with a 3 Tesla magnet, was originally brought to Mallinckrodt Institute of
Radiology for the Human Connectome project. Most studies are still related to the project. The scanner is
available 24/7 and offers discounted rates for evening and weekend usage. Investigators may bring in their
own personnel or may use MIR personnel, who are available Monday through Friday, from 7:30 a.m. till
3:30 p.m.
MRI Facility: We are an imaging facility with 1 MRI scanner dedicated exclusively to both clinical and nonclinical research involving outpatients and healthy control subjects. Researchers with MR certified personnel
can operate the scanner or an MRI Technologist is available upon request. The facility supports both human
and animal research with a strong emphasis on brain imaging
Neuroimaging Informatics Analysis Center (NIAC): The Neuroimaging Informatics Analysis Center (NIAC)
provides data management, processing and analysis, computing, and consulting to Washington University’s
neuroimaging community. Our services enable the university's researchers to study virtually every aspect of
the brain in normal and diseased states, including Alzheimer's Diseases, autism, stroke, depression, traumatic
brain injury, schizophrenia and many other disorders.
Pre-Clinical PET/CT Imaging Facility: The Pre-Clinical PET/CT Imaging Facility is a core facility in the
Department of Radiology for small and large animal positron emission tomography (PET) and computed
tomography (CT) imaging studies. Animal models of disease such as in mice and rats have become an
indispensable part of research for the development of new imaging probes and validation of novel therapy
drugs. To support this research endeavor, The Facility provides investigators with the tools and expertise to
gather reliable and reproducible data. The Facility is located in proximity of the Cyclotron Facility and has easy
access to wide array or radio-pharmaceuticals on demand. The Pre-Clinical PET/CT Imaging Facility works in
close collaboration with our Investigators and with the Cyclotron Facility to coordinate the imaging experiments
with utmost efficiency. The services include Positron Tomography (PET), Computed Tomography (CT) and
Cerenkov Imaging in small animals as well as radiopharmaceutical biodistribution studies in addition to various
animal surgical procedures. Finally, the Facility constitutes the Nuclear Medicine Imaging component of the
Barnes Jewish Hospital and Washington University Siteman Cancer Center Small Animal Cancer Imaging
Core.
Small-Animal Magnetic Resonance Facility: The Small-Animal Magnetic Resonance Facility in the
Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Laboratory (BMRL) has state-of-the-art facilities and equipment found at few
laboratories in the world. The Facility houses 4.7-T and 11.74-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems
with magnetic field strengths substantially higher than generally encountered in clinical systems. These offer
improved spatial or temporal resolution for imaging and improved accuracy of resonance amplitude and
frequency estimates for spectroscopy. Peripheral resources include animal holding and procedure rooms, a
wet chemistry lab, an electronics lab and a climate-controlled room holding computer server and data archival
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devices. Experienced BMRL scientists provide a full range of research services, from initial planning and
implementation to data collection and analysis. The Small-Animal Magnetic Resonance Facility is a costeffective way to include preclinical MR imaging and spectroscopy in research.
Molecular Microbiology Facilities
The Molecular Microbiology Imaging Facility: The Molecular Microbiology Imaging Facility provides
fluorescence, confocal, and transmission electron microscopy to all members of the Washington University
community on a recharge basis. Their goal is to assist faculty, staff, and students with their research needs for
imaging applications. The Molecular Microbiology Imaging Facility provides training and consultation on
experimental approaches for use of their instrumentation. In addition, the Imaging Facility is available for
complete processing of samples for transmission electron microscopy.
The Microbiology Imaging Facility maintains state-of-the art instrumentation for optical imaging, including
confocal, fluorescence, and electron microscopy. Training for students and postdoctoral fellows to use all
instrumentation is provided by a fully trained technical staff. The Imaging Facility is equipped with a Zeiss
LSM510 META Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope. This system supports a variety of applications including
multicolor colocalization, intensity measurements, and 3D reconstruction. The microscope is equipped with a
heated stage for live analyses and can be used with approved BL-2 microorganisms. The Imaging Facility also
has a Zeiss Axioskop MOT Plus equipped with an AxioCam MRM 2.0 Hi-Res digital camera for fluorescence
microscopy. The automated microscope interacts with Axiovision software for image capture, processing, and
documentation. Additional Axiovision modules include automated multichannel acquisition, interactive
measurement, automatic Z-series acquisition, and 3D deconvolution. Software is also available for
quantitation, colocalization, and interactive rendering of high resolution 3D and 4D volumes using the Volocity
program from Improvision. This facility is equipped with a JEOL 1200EX II transmission electron microscope
that is available to trained users. They also provide complete processing for plastic embedding and cryo or low
temperature immunoelectron microscopy, as well as image acquisition and analyses.
Cytation 3 Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Reader: This resource is offered by the Department of Molecular
Microbiology. The Cytation 3 Scanner has the ability to perform the following: Florescence; Luciferase;
Absorption; Microplate reader; and Image Analysis. The Cytation 3 Scanner is available to all investigators at
Washington University, and training is available through staff in the Doering and Sibley Labs.
Media Services Core Facility: This Facility is fully staffed and equipped to provide complete services in hand
poured, made-to-order microbiological media. The Media Services team has over 33 years of combined
experience and an error rate less than .005%. The Media Services mission is to provide speedy and accurate
products that enhance user confidence. Services include: liquid or solid media in various amounts; prepared to
lab specifications; hand poured; plates of diverse types; media with or without antibiotics; 48 hour incubated
quality control; and all additives measured and incorporated into media by senior personnel.
Neurology Centers:
Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center: The Washington University Knight
ADRC is one of 29 centers funded by the National Institute on Aging with the collective aim of facilitating
advanced research on clinical, genetic, neuropathological, neuroanatomical, biomedical, psychosocial, and
neuropsychological aspects of Alzheimer's disease and related brain disorders. Our Center and its clinical
research arm - the Memory and Aging Project (MAP) along with the Memory and Aging Project Satellite
(MAPS) - are at the forefront of a worldwide effort to uncover key causal factors in the development of
Alzheimer's disease, with a goal of developing more effective treatments and an eventual cure.
Center for Neuroimmunology and Neuroinfectious Diseases (CNND): This Center, led by Drs. Robyn Klein
(Division of Infectious Diseases) and Anne Cross (Neuroimmunology Unit Leader), provides additional
structure and support for the established neuroimmunology and neuroinfectious diseases interdisciplinary
community at Washington University. The CNND increases their synergy and enrichment for individual and
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collaborative translational and basic science research programs. The CNND, comprised of researchers and
clinicians from Internal Medicine, Neurology and Radiology, is the first such multidepartmental endeavor
focused on the pathogenesis of CNS inflammatory and infectious diseases. The mission of the CNND will be to
promote outstanding patient care and research for immunological and infectious disorders of the nervous
system via the training of clinician consultants and basic science researchers, the development of novel
diagnostic approaches and treatments, and by providing the WUSM scientific community with access to
facilities and expertise in neuroimmune interactions and neurotropism. To further the goal of increasing
scientific interactions, the CNND hosts an annual symposium to introduce the intersecting fields of
neuroimmunology, neuroinfectious diseases and neuroimaging and to foster interactions between WUSM
researchers working within these scientific disciplines.
MS Center: The MS Center seeks to combat multiple sclerosis through Patient Care, Research, and
Education to fulfill the following objectives: 1) To diagnose and/or confirm the diagnosis of MS; 2) To provide
medical treatment for MS and manage symptoms to help patients maintain normal lifestyles; 3) To educate and
train physicians and scientists about MS; and 4) To educate lay people, especially patients and their family
members, about MS.
NeuroFibromatosis (NF) Center: The Washington University NF Center is composed of clinicians and
laboratory scientists focused on accelerating the pace of scientific discovery and its application to the care of
individuals with NF and related disorders.
Pediatrics
Children’s Discovery Institute (CDI)
The Children’s Discovery Institute is a world-class center for pediatric research and innovation created to
encourage researchers to ask bold questions and take bold risks to uncover answers. By funding the work of
creative scientists and clinicians in collaborative, multi-disciplinary research aimed at some of the most
devastating childhood diseases and disorders, the Children’s Discovery Institute will accelerate the realization
of better treatments, cures, and preventions. This partnership established in 2006 between St. Louis Children’s
Hospital and Washington University is uniquely positioned to leverage the abilities of clinicians, investigators,
trainees, and professional staff throughout the University’s academic and medical community. The Children’s
Discovery Institute supports broad, interdisciplinary research initiatives within four specific centers (listed
below). The Center's approach is intended to focus thinking and innovation through open participation and the
exchange of ideas. Since the CDI’s inception in 2006, the CDI has awarded more than 43 million in scientific
grants.
McDonnell Pediatric Cancer Center: focuses on the etiology and treatment of pediatric cancers.
Center for Metabolism and Immunity: focuses on musculoskeletal, kidney and gastrointestinal disorders
including the microbiome, disorders of metabolism and diseases related to the immune system.
Center for Pediatric Pulmonary Disease: focuses on the biology of the pulmonary system and genetic
and acquired causes of pediatric lung disease.
Congenital Heart Disease Center: focuses on the environmental and genetic etiology of congenital heart
and vascular disease, related birth defects, and other heart disorders.
Interdisciplinary Career Development and Translational Research in Pediatrics Program:
A series of programs have been developed for pediatric residents, fellows, junior faculty and practicing
physicians to enhance and expand the clinical pediatric research opportunities available at WU and to foster
career development for pediatric investigators. These programs ensure rigorous training in clinical research
programs, and hands-on research experiences that take into consideration the special needs of children and
families. Although there are many collaborations between investigators in pediatrics and investigators working
with adults, this ICTS program provides an institution-wide mechanism to help integrate research in children
into broader institutional research programs. This institutional support includes training and resources for
issues related to informed consent, recruitment, ethics, vulnerable patient populations, sample size issues for
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rare diseases and conditions, increased participant risks, and greater difficulty performing procedures and
obtaining specimens.
Siteman Cancer Center:
The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center (SCC) was designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2004 by the
National Cancer Institute, the only such center in the state of Missouri and for a radius of 240 miles. This
distinction recognizes: 1) breadth and depth of scientific excellence in the basic sciences, translational and
clinical investigation, prevention and control, and oncologic imaging; 2) integration and collaboration between
all areas; and 3) education, outreach, communication, and collaboration in the community. The SCC brings
together 350 physicians and researchers from the nation’s leading medical research, teaching and patient-care
institutions – Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM), Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH), SLCH and
the St. Louis University School of Public Health. SCC members hold approximately $165 million in cancer
research funding, and Washington University Physicians treat more than 8,000 new cancer patients and follow
more than 32,000 patients annually. In support of its research activities, the Siteman Cancer Center has
developed a number of shared resources, which are available to the program scholars and mentors to facilitate
their research agendas.
Siteman Cores:
The Biologic Therapy Core Facility: The BTCF’s mission is to assist Principal Investigators in the rapid and
early translation of promising novel research into clinically relevant interventions intended to treat, prevent, or
improve outcomes for cancer and other diseases. It 1) is an FDA registered modern cleanroom facility (~2,600
square feet) for the manufacture of custom biologics and drugs under current Good Manufacturing Practices
(cGMP) conditions for use in clinical trials. 2) Provides assistance with Investigational New Drug (IND)
submissions; 3) Manufacture of Biologic and Non-Biologic therapeutics and 4) Select cell enrichments for cell
therapy applications in a controlled cGMP compliant environment.
Biostatistics Shared Resource: The Biostatistics Core facility is a shared resource supporting consultation
on biostatistics and epidemiology throughout the Siteman Cancer Center (SCC). The core will support cancer
research conducted by the seven SCC Research Programs. The mission of the core is to ensure that
experimental designs, study monitoring, and data analyses, take advantage of robust, efficient methods that
reflect 'best practices' in biostatistics and epidemiology. The Core supports NIH-funded peer reviewed cancer
grants; and enables pilot and small-scale studies to become part of successful applications for peer-reviewed
funding.
The Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs (CHiiPs): CHiiPs houses a state-ofthe-art instrument known as a time-of-flight mass cytometer that simultaneously can detect more than 50
different structures either on the cell surface or inside the cell. These structures provide important clues to the
identity of the cells of interest, their state of activation and the functions they perform. Until now, scientists have
been limited to studying no more than a handful of these markers at a time.
Clinical Trials Core: The Siteman Cancer Center Clinical Trials Core (CTC) promotes excellence in cancer
research for human subjects and provides support to all investigators in the cancer center for clinical research
activities. Comprehensive services are available through the CTC for all aspects of protocol development,
regulatory submissions, study coordination and data management.
Embryonic Stem Cell Core: The Mouse Embryonic Stem Cell (ESC) Core is a service generously supported
by the Departments of Medicine, Developmental Biology, Cell Biology, Ophthalmology, Orthopedic Surgery,
Anesthesiology and Neurology. The mission of the ESC Core is to help you create mutations in murine
embryonic stem cells. The core has several aspects to this mission, including development of state-of-the-art
reagents for the production of targeted mutations in embryonic stem cells, the creation of quality-controlled
embryonic stem cell lines, and the teaching of methods for embryonic stem cell culture and manipulation. By
providing a comprehensive service, we hope to facilitate the production of gain-of-function and loss-of-function
mouse models for our faculty.
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Health Behavior, Communication and Outreach Core (Donna Jeffe, PhD): The core provides consultation
and assistance in epidemiology and statistics, health education, psychological aspects of cancer, and quality of
life. Assistance is also available for recruitment and outreach activities such as the development of
educational materials for minority audiences, and the development of intervention approaches designed to
meet the needs of African Americans and other minority groups. This core provides a linkage to the NCIfunded Center for Excellence in Cancer Communications Research, the Health Communications Research Lab
at the Washington University Institute for Public Health, and the Program for the Elimination of Cancer
Disparities (PECaD).
High-Throughput Screening Core: Provides plate-based assay services, screening resources, expertise,
automation along with both siRNA and small-molecule compound libraries suitable for cell-based and
biochemical assays. Experienced personnel work in partnership with researchers to automate assay
procedures for just a few plates through full-scale HTS.
Imaging and Response Assessment Core (IRAC): The Imaging and Response Assessment Core (IRAC) is
a shared resource that focuses on accurate and reproducible imaging assessment for tumor characterization
and for determining response to therapy in clinical cancer research. Great care is taken to ensure the service
provides accurate measurements of CT, MRI and PET/CT imaging data and that the services are delivered in
a timely fashion. All results are reviewed by a board-certified radiologist.
Siteman Flow Cytometry: The Flow Cytometry Core provides investigators with instrumentation and
support for cell sorting as well as acquisition and analysis of flow cytometry data. Services offered include:
Staff-operated cell sorting; Assistance with experimental design; Instruction and training on the instruments;
Consultations on sample preparation and data analysis. The following instruments are available in the Flow
Cytometry Core:
Two BD FACSAriaII cell sorters from BD Biosciences; All sorters provide high-speed, high purity multiparameter cell sorting into tubes and are also capable of single cell sorting directly into 96-well plates. BD
FACSAriaII-2 cell sorter is available for operation by trained users and BD FACSAriaII-1 is operated by the
core staff only.
BD LSR II, BD FACSCanto II, BD Lsr Fortessa and BD FACSCalibur analyzers; These instruments allow
analysis of up to 15 fluorescent parameters. New users are provided with training before being able to operate
the instruments. Use the link at the bottom of this page to access the instrument schedule and make
appointments.
Small Animal Cancer Imaging (SACI): SACI provides state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure for MRI,
PET, CT, Beta, SPECT, and optical imaging of mice, rats and other small laboratory animals that serve as
models of cancer. Located in the heart of the Washington University Medical Center, SACI combines
instrumental and intellectual capabilities found at few other institutions and serves a broad community of
cancer scientists who have a pressing need for quantitative image analysis of small laboratory animal model
systems. SACI provides access to and maintenance of small-animal MRI, PET, CT, and optical imaging
scanners and ancillary facilities and routinely assists and trains researchers in imaging procedures and data
analysis methods. In addition to supporting research applications of small-animal cancer imaging, SACI also
provides research and development at the frontier of imaging technology in an effort to make the most powerful
new imaging strategies available to its community of users. The ancillary small-animal research services and
capabilities provided by SACI are extraordinary. Support resources within SACI include consultation for
experiment planning and data analysis, animal-procedure assistance for maintenance and monitoring of
physiologic status during imaging, and informatics support for local and remote data access, analysis,
visualization, and archival.
Siteman Programs:
Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD): Formally initiated in 2003; the PECaD
encompasses SCC efforts to address pervasive issues of disparities of cancer diagnosis, treatment, prevention
and control, and education. A strategy was developed that targets systemic problems of access and trust, for
which outstanding community and institutional participants were recruited to serve on advisory and steering
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committees. Advisory and steering committees oversee all SCC efforts in this area and work to identify barriers
and key associated issues, as well as to match appropriate resources to overcome them. This program was
recognized by the NCI in 2005 with funding through the Community Networks Program. The program utilizes
disease-focused, community-based action teams to improve coordination of cancer efforts and build
community-based participatory research.
CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE
BJC Center for Clinical Excellence (CCE): The CCE was founded in 1995, and provides leadership in quality
assessment and health services research throughout BJC. Directed by WUSM faculty member Wm. Claiborne
Dunagan, MD, the CCE’s nearly 100 clinicians, epidemiologists, analysts, programmers, industrial engineers,
facilitators, project managers, and supporting personnel promote quality improvement and research. The
center exists to improve clinical quality and patient safety, contribute to medical education and research, and
enhance workforce development. The CCE maintains three core functional areas: (1) Healthcare informatics,
(2) Clinical Excellence Consulting, and (3) Transformation Support. CCE manages BJC’s Preventable Harm
Initiative, the BJC Excellence in Patient Care Committee, the Infection Prevention and Epidemiology
Consortium, the BJC Patient Safety Program, and the Medical Informatics Laboratory.
Center of Excellence in Health Communication Research (CEHCR): The CEHCR is an NCI-funded center
focusing on novel health communications strategies with a particular emphasis on African American and other
minority communities. The CEHCR includes research projects and cores and builds on Dr. Matthew Kreuter’s
Health Communications Research Lab, which includes dedicated staff members, data and library services, a
mobile (van) outreach unit, design, printing and numerous other resources to address health communication
for diverse populations who might not otherwise have knowledge of or access to these services.
Midwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research:
The MRCE is a network of scientists the states of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri as well as
representative institutions from Cleveland, Ohio. We are dedicated to supporting the NIAID's strategic plan of
improving national defenses against bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases. Our mission is to expand
the scope and quality of research in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases throughout the region, with
the goal of developing the next generation of diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics against selected biologic
threats.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Public Transit: Washington University provides free annual passes to the metro and bus services for all
students, faculty and staff. The metro runs every 10-15 minutes between the Danforth and Medical Campuses
(a 4-minute ride) and to key destinations including the airport and neighborhoods where students live and play.
This ensures efficient access between home and the two campuses for our students.
Animal: Vertebrate animals are housed in three animal facilities at the University, managed by the
Department of Comparative Medicine. A staff of veterinarians provides supervision for the care of animals
including fish, frogs, snakes, rodents, and primates. All procedures and protocols that involve animals are
approved by the Washington University Animal Studies Committee.
Computer Resources (DOM)
Computers: The WU Department of Medicine Computing Support Service (IMCSS) maintains and operates
shared drives on a password-protected, HIPAA-compliant server available to the Principal Investigators and all
Co-Investigators and staff involved in this project. The database management at the IMCSS is built with
multiple layers of security and follows best practices for securing sensitive data. Systems containing electronic
PHI under the direct control of the WUSM IMCSS are housed in a server room in a secured building. Access to
this building during business hours is monitored by the security guard at the front desk. Afterhours access to
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the building and 24 x 7 access to the actual server room are controlled with a card reader based upon the
Washington University ID badge security system to validate access rights at both exterior entry ways. Both the
outside exits and the inside door are monitored by security cameras with a security guard watching the remote
screen feeds. The server room is a shared area which houses multiple departments’ equipment. Department of
Medicine equipment is housed in vendor rack systems which are secured by key allowing access to only
designated Department Of Medicine employees. The system administrator or root account is password
protected on each server. A user identification and password authentication mechanism has been
implemented to control user access to each server.
Each workforce member requiring access to electronic PHI data on the IMCSS server is given a unique user
id. The permissions setup to access PHI data is based upon the user’s ID and level of access associated with
it. There are no generic or guest accounts given access to the PHI data. Each user ID created and assigned to
access PHI data is assigned a password, requiring a minimum of 8 alphanumeric characters, and containing at
least 3 of the following 4 characteristics: an upper case letter, lower case letter, number, and special character.
The passwords have a maximum lifetime of 2 months and may not be repeated for 3 times (6 mos.). User
training and documentation will emphasize use of a pass phrase rather than a password, since these lend
themselves to easier memorization, a greater length, and are more difficult to crack than single word
passwords. All unused or unnecessary services have been disabled on each server. In addition to turning off
all unused services, all systems containing PHI have a software firewall installed on them with all access
blocked except specified ports. Servers are located on a secure network with firewall protection.
The Infectious Diseases (ID) Division has an integrated local area network for epidemiological and research
data analysis with file servers which automatically save and store data. The division has over 40 Pentiumprocessor personal computers on individual staff desks, with direct Internet access through a LAN line, in
addition to individual laptop computers and 2 division laptop computers. The ID Division has a Data
Management Group consisting of three full-time personnel with extensive experience in data management and
data manipulation. They are responsible for creation of databases, supervision of data entry, and all aspects of
data management. Data management software available to all staff in the ID Division includes Microsoft
Access, Microsoft Excel, and DBMS/Copy. The common statistical software used in the ID Division includes
SAS, SPSS for Windows, and Stata. Other available software used for preparation of manuscripts and
dissemination of results include EndNote, Reference Manager, Microsoft PowerPoint, and poster-making
software. The computers in the ID Division are all password protected to insure confidentiality. To assist in
dissemination of results, the ID Division has 3 LCD panel projectors, 3 slide projectors, a digital camera, an
optical scanner, a poster printer and a slide maker, which are available to the Principal Investigators, all CoInvestigators, and staff. Computers available to all faculty are Pentium IV 3.40 GHz personal computers, with 2
GB of RAM and 150 GB hard drives. All computers available to the PI and Co-Investigators have external hard
drives for back-up of files and double-density DVD drives.
The Division of Biostatistics' computing resources are organized around an Ethernet LAN. A cluster of Intel
servers (all running Linux) form the core of the shared use machines. The Linux cluster currently consists of 8
dual processor compute servers with SAS, SPlus and R installed, seven fileservers, supporting a total of 20
Terabytes of storage, and 9 other servers (mostly dual processor) supporting webserving, mail processing and
other administrative uses. A compute farm consisting of 13 dual Intel Xeon 3.06 GHz or dual Opteron 2.2GHz
systems is primarily devoted to genetic epidemiology related projects and is configured to utilize Gridware for
efficient parallel utilization of the computing power. All of these servers plus all desktop systems are on a
private network protected from the rest. These systems are administratively organized as a Division-wide
computing resource (Wubios) with the costs shared by its users. Access to the private network for systems
outside of the Division can be achieved by VPN connections. Each faculty or staff member of the Biostatistics
Division has a networked desktop computer. These IBM/PC compatible systems support a variety of
applications including word processing. Most faculty have a Linux-based workstation in their office as well. All
systems have the necessary software installed to provide an integrated client/server computing environment.
BJC HealthCare computing resources include state of the art computing hardware in the BJC Medical
Informatics Laboratory, which develops cutting edge clinical software. Medical Informatics includes six
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computer scientist programmer/analysts and its Director. The core competencies of this group include
integration of data from disparate sources, expert system programming, use of databases for discovery, and
notification technology. The Medical Informatics Lab uses mid- to high-end Windows XP workstations. The
workstations are configured with a variety of software packages to meet the needs of the individual users.
Commercial software packages in use include ERwin Data Modeler 7, IntelliJ, Eclipse, Business Objects,
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Professional, Talend Open Studio, WinSQL, and Symphonia. All workstations
include the Sybase ASE 15 Open Client, SQL Advantage, and Sybase Central. Other software includes IBM
MQSeries, Apache Tomcat, Apache Ant, Java (including Java APIs, JUnit, Javamail, JDBC, etc), Perl, and
Vsifax. Version control is supported using the BJC Enterprise CVS repository.
The databases and analyses will take place on existing workstations and servers. The workstations will be
used to access the data and perform analyses. Specifically, WinSQL, Business Objects and MS Query will be
used for accessing data and SAS and R will be used for analyses. The Unix servers will house the data. Two
servers (production and test) will be used for this grant. They are Sun SPARC64 V1 with four 2.15 GHz
processors and 32 GB memory running Solaris 10 and Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise version 15.3.
Database storage is on a Storage Area Network (SAN). Local files and software are stored directly on the
server. All hardware is housed in the Clayton Avenue Building Data Center and is supported by the BJC
Healthcare IS department. Backups are performed nightly to a separate server using IBM's Tivoli Storage
Manager (TSM) and rotated offsite to a third party bonded storage company. All servers and workstations have
up-to-date antivirus protection maintained by BJC IS Security. BJC IS ensures HIPAA compliance across the
enterprise. In particular, all servers are protected by a Firewall; access to systems requires a username and
password which must be changed every 90 days; no mail can be sent directly to the Unix servers; access to
the data center is restricted by access cards, which are limited to IS operators and administrators.
The Medical Informatics Laboratory (MIL) at Washington University and BJC HealthCare comprises ten
computer scientist programmer/analysts, a clinical pharmacist, and its physician director. The Department
operates state-of-the-art computing hardware and develops cutting edge clinical software. This group's core
competencies include integration of data from disparate sources, automated expert system programming, use
of databases for discovery, and automated notification technology. Strong working partnerships exists with
BJC pharmacists and BJC HealthCare’s Information Services Department.
The Clinical Data Repository (CDR) was developed by BJC to facilitate integration of data from disparate
sources. This repository is used for system-wide patient care, decision support and research. Most of the data
in the repository are acquired from source systems in real time via HL7 interfaces, and incoming data are
encoded to standard vocabularies wherever possible. A group within BJC Information Services maintains a
Medical Entity Dictionary that maps inbound facility-specific concepts to an enterprise code. This allows most
applications, queries, and reports to work across all facilities with little or no changes. All observations within
the CDR are associated with a registration number assigned by the facility where the observation occurred. A
separate team in the BJC Information Systems department maintains a Master Patient Index (MPI) database
that maps all registration (encounter) numbers to an enterprise-wide patient identifier. The database also
stores times associated with each observation. Together with the MPI number, registration number, and
facility, the date and time information allows single patients to be tracked across multiple facilities and the
sequence of observations within one or more registrations to be analyzed. The repository started with
registration, medication, and microbiology data from a single hospital in 1993. Subsequently, new hospitals
and data sources were added, as summarized in the table below. Using the MPI as the patient indexing
backbone, the CDR has acquired information for 4.6 million persons. The CDR contains over 34.5 million
patient encounters and nearly 270 million results, events, and documents. The CDR accepts data from over
140 different BJC Clinical Applications as sources of data with a yearly average of 94 million messages.
Administrative Data Repository Server: The shared server housing the administrative data repository
consists of a Dell r905 4 x 2.4 processor quad core server with 32 GB RAM, and RAID 5 local drives for OS
and quick access storage, and a MD3000i iSCSI drive shelf with a MD1000 daughter shelf, providing 5.4 TB
available storage. We currently have a backup system configuring for disk to disk to tape backups, that
provides fault tolerance in a ‘live’ duplicate of the data on disk plus disaster recovery in the form of off-site and
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on-site tape retention procedures. The backup system consists of a Dell TL4000 dual drive tape library, with
MD1000 drive shelf providing 6 TB redundant drive space for disk to disk backup. The Vmware ESX host
software provides direct access through private switches to data store and hosting users virtual infrastructure,
consisting of 15 virtual desktops assigned to users in remote desktop sessions. The Commvault backup
software manages disk to disk to tape jobs and tape rotation.
Network connections: The local networks of the Department of Medicine are connected via Ethernet to the
campus-wide network containing the computer resources at WUSM with access to Internet electronic
communication. This is heavily used to facilitate rapid communication among investigators. Data backup is
available through IMCSS on secured web sites. Tape backups of project data on all servers (shared and within
individual divisions) are made on a nightly basis. The tape backups are available on an as-needed basis from
the IMCSS in the event of system failures. The IMCSS is on call at all times to provide rapid assistance with
hardware and software problems.
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