.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;}
Mercy Medical Center – Des Moines and Des Moines University (DMU) have formed a partnership aimed at reducing the time it takes for scientific discoveries to produce viable treatment options for patients. The Iowa Center for Translational and Clinical Research, housed at Mercy, is the first facility of its kind in the state outside the University of Iowa.

“We’ve been working together and developing this for a period of time,” said Bryan Larsen, DMU’s dean of university research and biomedical graduate studies, who will serve as the center’s director. Larsen said he believes the center is the first in the country to bring together a private hospital and private medical university, as most other “bench-to-bedside” research centers are located at university-based academic health centers. Mercy College of Health Sciences and Drake University’s College of Pharmacy will also be involved in the center’s research activities, along with Mercy Clinics and Mercy’s surgical and family practice residency programs. Larsen said some of the center’s current projects “should pay some dividends pretty quickly,” yielding results within a year. Among the collaborative research projects already under way are:

• a brain mapping effort to create new methods for analyzing magnetic resonance imaging images;

• an evaluation of existing patient data to better understand the origins and consequences of atrial fibrillation;

• the use of advanced molecular techniques to understand the sources of contamination in needleless intravenous apparatuses.

Larger universities, including the University of Iowa, are receiving federal money for similar efforts. In September 2007 the U of I’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science was awarded a five-year, $34 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The university was among the initial 24 schools chosen for a national consortium to accelerate the development of medical research into viable treatments. The NIH plans to fund a total of 60 university research centers by 2012.

Currently, Mercy and DMU are funding the center internally, but the center plans to “aggressively” pursue research grants to help fund its projects, Larsen said. Though it probably won’t qualify for the type of funding the U of I received, other NIH programs may provide funds, he said.