This core facilitates comprehensive clinical translational research by providing research personnel trained to administer a core set of behavioral assessments, coordinating access to biobehavioral research resources across collaborating colleges, providing/facilitating training for the administration of core assessments and serving as a training site for pre/post-doctoral trainees in the behavioral sciences, and providing consultation regarding potential assessment tools for both animal and human work.
More generally, this core enhances the efforts of the other research cores and resources and facilitates collaborative effort thus accelerating the development of clinical translational research efforts while providing additional opportunities for education and training.
Identifying potential avenues for biobehavioral integration is a key role of the core. The core director and staff work with CTSI investigators to identify areas of potential integration. Initial contact may occur through the investigators’ direct contact with the BBC or through referral to the BBC through another core or through the CTSI administration.
If you are writing a grant, we are happy to meet with you to discuss the options available for biobehavioral measurements into your protocol.
To achieve its mission and objectives, the BBC maintains a core library of clinical research assessment instruments. The library is not exhaustive instead focusing on behavioral and paper/pencil assessments often used in health-related research including standard assessments of depressive and anxiety symptoms, reading skill (as an estimate of premorbid functioning), basic perceptual-motor, learning/memory and problem-solving tasks, and demographic information including family trees/pedigrees. This core set of instruments is of general interest to a wide range of clinical translational researchers. The common set of instruments provides the opportunity to develop a large database of information that could be used for descriptive data analyses which would be useful in determining future study feasibility, summaries regarding health status of the community, etc. For studies with additional needs, the BBC works with the investigators and established testing/assessment resources to identify appropriate instrumentation.
Contact
Please contact Sara Jo Nixon, Ph.D., sjnixon@ufl.edu or 392-3681
