research programs

The following brief descriptions represent a small portion of the many research initiatives in which Temple faculty are involved:

The Temple Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC), headed by Dr. Steven Houser, is a consortium of basic and clinical scientists with a broad mission to better define the causes and cures of cardiovascular diseases. Operationally, the CVRC facilitates multilevel, interdisciplinary collaborations that help target basic research towards clinical challenges and enables translation of discoveries into novel approaches for the detection, treatment and prevention of debilitating cardiovascular disorders.

The Temple University Lung Center, headed by Dr. Gerard Criner, conducts a wide range of clinical research, investigating new approaches to common and serious diseases. The Lung Center also offers one of the most comprehensive medical and surgical pulmonary care programs in the country, providing management of patients in all stages of pulmonary and critical care diseases. The Lung Center also provides training to prepare physicians for careers in either basic research or clinical practice.

The Center for Neurovirology and Cancer Biology (CNVCB), headed by Dr. Kamel Khalili, performs research on the molecular biology and genetics of viral and non-viral induced disorders of the central nervous system in order to develop molecular therapeutics strategies against relevant diseases. CNVCB also focuses training scientists and educators in the field of modern biology, with a concentration on development of new biomedical technologies.

The Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology, headed by Dr. E. Premkumar Reddy, focuses on research and training in cancer-related basic biological and biochemical sciences, with progressive extension into the areas of molecular developmental and structural biology to advance knowledge of the etiology and pathogenesis of cancer.

The Center for Substance Abuse Research (CSAR), headed by Dr. Martin Adler and Dr. Toby Eisenstein, is dedicated to research on the biological basis for addiction, its underlying causes, and modalities for treatment interventions. In its broadest sense, CSAR seeks to encompass approaches from bench research using animal models, to investigation of humans suffering from addiction, to sociological approaches involving criminal justice and drug policy issues. At present, the focus of the Center is oriented towards basic research concentrated on understanding the biological pathways by which drugs of abuse cause their effects.