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The Biomedical Technology (BT) Resource Centers Program supports 42 specialized
centers located nationwide, primarily at academic and other research institutions.
These centers make available a broad spectrum of technologies, techniques, and
methodologies to this nation’s biomedical research community.
Collaborative Opportunities: Through collaborative projects, center scientists
provide investigators with special training in the use of a new technologies,
and through topic-specific short courses, symposia, and workshops, they introduce
the biomedical research community to potential applications of new technological
resources. Center scientists–at the cutting edge of the technological fields
of engineering, computer sciences, physics, and mathematics, for example–conduct
research aimed at solving technological barriers to biomedical progress. They
best accomplish this through collaborative activities with investigators who have
funded research projects in all areas of study and who qualify to use the technological
and intellectual resources of the centers.
Benefits of Collaborative Projects: This multidisciplinary approach of center
scientists collaborating with basic and clinical investigators, including physicians,
hastens the creation and development of new and useful technologies. In turn,
these technologies help rapidly advance knowledge in many fields, such as structural
biology, neuroscience, drug design, and clinical diagnosis. Each center has a
research emphasis and resource capabilities, generally in the areas of bioengineering,
magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy,
synchrotron radiation, simulation and computation, laser applications, isotopes
and particles, and others.
Accessing Technological Resources: To access a center, funded investigators
should refer to the Biomedical
Technology Resources Directory for contact information
or for the center’s web site address.
Establishing a Technological Resource: The NCRR Division for Biomedical Technology Research and Research Resources
(DBTRRR) supports the Biomedical Technology Resource Centers Program through five-year,
competitive grants. Institutions interested in applying for a grant (P41) to establish
a Biomedical Technology Resource Center should first consult the Biomedical Technology
Program Guidelines and then contact an NCRR program official.
The Biomedical Informatics Research
Network (BIRN) is a new NCRR initiative that draws upon the
expertise and technologies available at several Biomedical Technology
Resource Centers. BIRN will bring together groups of organizations
to share high-resolution digital MRI and advanced 3-D microscope
images of animal and human brains to test a new method of doing
large-scale medical science.
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