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Abstract:
Jointly Founded Institute Will Develop New Technologies, Speed Diagnostic Advances

Methodist, University of Houston, Cornell combine biomedical imaging expertise

HOUSTON, TX | Posted on June 11th, 2007

The Methodist Hospital, the University of Houston, and Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University are combining their expertise in biomedical imaging to advance discoveries in this growing field of biomedical science and its clinical applications.

The three institutions have jointly founded the Institute for Biomedical Imaging Science (IBIS). This Institute will create interdisciplinary programs in the sciences of biomedical imaging and will foster joint training programs to produce the next generation of basic and applied scientists. Biomedical imaging includes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CAT scans and other high technologies ranging from molecular imaging to nanotechnology to computer science.

These techniques are used to observe the activities of organs, cells and molecules with the aim of better diagnosis and treatment of many disorders, including those caused by cancer, cardiac malfunction and neurological conditions.

IBIS will bring together a critical mass of scientists from the three partner institutions to work toward developing new technologies and toward improving and extending existing ones. The combined expertise is expected to speed such advances and to increase the likelihood of receiving major grants for research and training.

"The possibilities for collaborative research by this consortium are endless," said Dr. King Li, the director of the IBIS and Chair of Radiology at the Methodist Hospital. "We hope to attract research grants that will lead to discoveries in new technologies and techniques to better unearth diseases at their earliest stages."

"We are establishing a unique research environment, with as many as 50 scientists working together from the three institutions that already are aligned through academic affiliations," said Ioannis Kakadiaris, chair of the IBIS steering committee and director of the Division of Bioimaging and Biocomputation at the University of Houston. "We are thus positioning ourselves to be on the forefront of discoveries in biomedical imaging."

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About University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

About The Methodist Hospital

The Methodist Hospital is one of the nation’s largest private, non-profit hospitals with 935 operating beds. The Methodist Hospital is affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dedicated to providing the highest level of patient care, Methodist is the site of numerous medical breakthroughs, such as the world’s first multiple-organ transplant in the 1960s, gene therapy for prostate cancer, and the first islet cell transplants in Texas. The hospital is consistently named among the country’s top hospitals in numerous specialties in U.S. News and World Report’s annual guide to America’s Best Hospitals. Methodist was recently named No. 9 on FORTUNE’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for 2007. Methodist’s medical staff includes hundreds of physicians listed in The Best Doctors in America.

About Weill Cornell Medical College

Weill Cornell Medical College – located in New York City – is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine. Weill Cornell, which is a principal academic affiliate of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, offers an innovative curriculum that integrates the teaching of basic and clinical sciences, problem-based learning, office-based preceptorships, and primary care and doctoring courses. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research in such areas as stem cells, genetics and gene therapy, geriatrics, neuroscience, structural biology, cardiovascular medicine, AIDS, obesity, cancer and psychiatry – and continue to delve ever deeper into the molecular basis of disease in an effort to unlock the mysteries behind the human body and the malfunctions that result in serious medical disorders. Weill Cornell Medical College is the birthplace of many medical advances – from the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer to the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., and most recently, the world’s first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Weill Cornell’s Physician Organization includes 650 clinical faculty, who provide the highest quality of care to their patients.

For more information about The Methodist Hospital, visit
http://www.methodisthealth.com .

For more information about UH, visit the university’s Newsroom at
http://www.uh.edu/newsroom .

For more information about Weill Cornell Medical College, visit
http://www.med.cornell.edu .