Positioned for the Future
Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute

There are many challenges to sustained research heading into the 21st century. With increased competition for grants, a flat National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget and long-term funding trends leveling off, research institutes must be well positioned to carry their research into the future. Already among the top 10 percent of pediatric research institutes in the nation for NIH funding, CHORI is strategically positioned to do just that. CHORI has long established research within its Prevention of Obesity, Cardiovascular Disease & Diabetes and Immunobiology & Vaccine Development centers in the areas identified in President Bush’s Major Initiatives: obesity, biodefense, and AIDS. In addition, both the President’s and NIH’s research goals highlight the NIH Roadmap, a set of funding guidelines prioritizing collaborative research between basic scientists and clinicians. Already a mainstay of CHORI, collaborative research is built into the cross-disciplinary structure all six of its research centers. Here are but a few of the achievements born from that collaborative research that is both at the heart of CHORI as a research institute, and central to

Just a few of our ‘bench to bedside’ successes: the first cure of alpha thalassemia major in North America an affordable vaccine for third-world Africa a reliable, non-invasive, early detection and prevention assay for screening pregnant women for a debilitating genetic disorder the Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) program to integrate obesity treatment, prevention, research and outreach

sustained research funding in the future. Meeting the goals of the President’s Major Initiatives and embodying the NIH values of interdisciplinary research, CHORI is poised to usher in a new era in biomedical research.