The Biobehavioral Core facilitates 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;
- serving as a training site for pre- and postdoctoral trainees in the behavioral sciences; and
- providing consultation regarding potential assessment tools for both animal and human work.
Identifying potential avenues for biobehavioral integration is a key role of the core. The core director and staff work with investigators to identify areas of potential integration. If you are writing a grant, we are happy to meet with you to discuss options for integrating biobehavioral measurements into your protocol.
Resources
We maintain a core library of 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 translational researchers. It provides an opportunity to develop a large database that could be used for descriptive data analyses that would be useful in determining future study feasibility, summaries regarding health status of the community, etc.
Contact
Sara Jo Nixon, PhD, Core Director
Email: sjnixon@ufl.edu
Phone: (352) 392-3681