Brown University has long been regarded as a leader in all aspects of health care and teaching, including research. Over the past 10 years, research funding within the Department of Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, Veterans Administration-Providence and The Miriam Hospital grew from $9.9 million in 1997 to over $39 million in 2009 – almost a 400% increase over that period. Over 75% of current funding comes from federal programs such as NIH, HRSA, CDC, and HHS.
The major research laboratories, animal facilities and centers at Brown are located among all the affiliates with Rhode Island Hospital accounting for the majority (68% of overall Department of Medicine funding). These laboratories are highlighted by the Galletti Research Building, a 60,000+ square foot research facility, which houses the Liver Research Center, Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center, and Infectious Disease laboratories as well as the Coro research facility which houses the Diabetes Hallet Center, Genomics and Proteomics Center, and Cardiovascular Research Center. Construction has also begun of new research space in the Coro facility to buiuld a new 10,000 square foot Medical Oncology research laboratory.
Both basic and clinical research are well represented in the Department. For basic research, major strengths include the Liver Research Center (directed by Dr. Jack Wands), Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center (directed by Dr. Robert Smith), and Medical Oncology and Stem Cell Research (directed by Dr. Peter Quesenberry). Notably, in 2009 Rhode Island Hospital received two NIH funded COBRE grants totaling $22 million over 5 years for the Proteomics and Genomics Research Program (Dr. Douglas Hixson, Principal Investigator) and Stem Cell Biology Programs (Dr. Peter Quesenberry, Principal Investigator).
Clinical Research strengths include the Infectious Disease program under Dr. Timothy Flanigan, which has a major program in both domestic and international HIV/AIDS (including an NIH funded Center for AIDS Research program and T-32 Training grant from NIH, and Fogarty International program), Research Section, General Internal Medicine, under Dr. Peter Friedmann and the Cardiology research groups under Drs. J. Dawn Abbott, James Arrighi and Barry Sharaf, (Interventional Cardiology) and Dr. Alfred Buxton (Electrophysiology).
At Memorial Hospital, Dr. Andrew Artenstein has received significant federal funding for a “Center for Biodefense”. In 2009, Dr. Michael Stein has initiated a Substance Abuse Research Program based at Butler Hospital.
With ongoing recruitments for both senior and junior faculty, increasing successes of our existing faculty, research for the Department of Medicine should continue to grow and become even stronger in the future.
For more detailed information regarding the research efforts in the Department of Medicine please review the Department’s Research Overview Document presented in PDF format.