University of Virginia Health System

The Diabetes Center Administrative Core

Administration

Role of the Administrative Core

The Administrative Core provides scientific direction and organizational structure to support and facilitate both the research of DERC members and the scientific development within the core laboratories. This administrative work includes:

1) interfacing with the University and School of Medicine administration regarding procedural, personnel and budgetary planning,and

2) consultation with an Executive Committee regarding scientific, operational, and institutional issues that either impact upon or are affected by the DERC. 

The Director, and Associate Directors, and Grants Specialist conduct the day-to-day oversight of DERC activities. Regarding fiscal planning, the Administrative Core is responsible for monitoring expenditures, ordering of equipment and supplies for the Core  Laboratories and Pilot and Feasibility investigators, and for grants management.  The Administrative Core provides, through the Core Laboratory Directors, scientific oversight and guidance to the Cores, both with regard to service functions and development activities. Through the Enrichment Program, the Administrative Core provides resources to bring visiting scientists, working on diabetes and related metabolic disorders, to the institution, thereby stimulating scientific inquiry in this area.  The Administrative Core attracts investigators through the  Pilot and Feasibility Program to address questions of scientific importance that are relevant to diabetes mellitus. It also fosters the development and success of investigator efforts through the use of the core laboratories and the Enrichment Program. Finally, the Administrative Core provides a very visible, vital, institutional focus for members and participants of the DERC as well as for the University of Virginia faculty and staff involved with diabetes or endocrine research.

DERC Executive Committee

• Jerry Nadler, Chair, Director of the Cell and Islet Isolation Core
• Jay Fox, Director, Biomedical Research Facility
• Susanna Keller, Director, Animal Characterization Core
• Marcia McDuffie, Director, Mouse Genetics Core
• Boris Kovatchev, Director, Integrated Data Management Core
• Tony McCall, Chair of the Pilot and Feasibility Review Committee
• Terry Saunders, Director of the Virginia Center for Diabetes Professional Education
• William Clarke, Director of Pediatric Diabetes Outreach
• Daniel Cox, Professor of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry
• Gary Owens, Professor of Physiology

The DERC administration meets monthly with the Executive Committee to review the function of each of the Core Laboratories with respect to its day-to-day operations, development plans and financial status. The Executive Committee also receives and reviews the reports of the four extramural consultants annually. These reports form the basis for specific actions relevant to the day-to-day efficient operation of the cores, to the conduct of the Pilot and Feasibility and enrichment programs and to the overall administration of the DERC.

Pilot and Feasibility Committee

• Tony McCall, Chair
• Marcia McDuffie, Director, Mouse Genetics Core
• Thomas Sturgill, Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology
• David Castle, Professor of Cell Biology
• Daniel Cox, Professor of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry
• Raghu Mirmira (Assistant Professor of  Medicine).
• Jerry Nadler will participate, ex officio, in the deliberations of the committee. 

The committee: a) advises the Director and Associate Directors regarding the dissemination of information about the Pilot Feasibility program, b) conducts a preliminary review of all applications to assess scientific quality and the appropriateness of proposed work to the goals of the Center, advising investigators on revisions; c) decides which applications should be referred for external review; d) reviews comments of external reviewers and forwards funding recommendations to the Executive Committee.