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Kindy to encourage collaboration in research Neuroscience research at MUSC is a rapidly growing enterprise. The Center on Aging and the departments of Physiology, Psychiatry, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Pathology, Pediatrics, Ophthalmology, among others all have active research programs in the area of neuroscience.      As the newly appointed interim director of the Neuroscience Institute, Mark S. Kindy, Ph.D., hopes to apply his collaborative spirit to support the further development of the institute. The goal would be to enhance the programs in translational neuroscience research and biotechnology.  His aim is to help formalize the Neuroscience Institute, by having regular faculty meetings, specific research seminars, and continuing with the “Frontiers in Neuroscience” meeting at MUSC.   Other areas of development would include facilitating interactions and providing direction by assisting individual and collaborative research endeavors; grant submissions, teaching and program development in the neurosciences and recruitment. To help the director “move things forward,” an advisory group of highly respected neuroscientists at MUSC has been established.    “South Carolina is a unique area of the country,” Kindy said. “With the high rate of stroke and cardiovascular disease, and an increasing elderly population, aging-related diseases like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and dementia, are going to continue to grow. We need to understand the biochemical and genetic factors that contribute to these diseases.”     He has already been working with researchers in the Department of Neurology to help complement their programs in HIV dementia and spinal cord injury. Kindy has worked with James Hickman, Ph.D., at Clemson and Naren Banik, Ph.D., at MUSC to submit a Biotechnology Research Partnership proposal to NIH. They are working towards a Program Project grant in spinal cord injury. He has also submitted a proposal to the State of South Carolina for a “Center of Economic Excellence in Neuroscience Research” at MUSC, which will provide up to three endowed chairs.        Kindy is collaborating to submit proposals for an Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the Specialized Center of Clinically Oriented Research at MUSC. In addition, he is developing programs with the MUSC Marine Biomedicine and Environmental Sciences Center at Ft. Johnson to study the role of environmental toxins in the developing nervous system and identification of marine biomolecules that may function as neuroprotective agents.    Kindy said he would appreciate the opportunity to share these efforts and help build collaborations within the neuroscience community and to enhance the development of the Neuroscience Institute and MUSC.     Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.