Gulf Coast Consortia announces Houston Methodist Research Institute as newest member of its quantitative biomedical sciences collaborative
(July 19, 2022 HOUSTON, Texas) – The Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC) has named Houston Methodist Research Institute (HMRI) as its newest and eighth institutional member. GCC, a Houston-Galveston area organization founded in 2001, is one of the largest inter-institutional academic cooperatives in the nation focused on building strong, collaborative, biomedical research groups and interdisciplinary training opportunities for Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows.
HMRI joins GCC members Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, University of Houston, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the Institute of Biosciences and Technology of Texas A&M University.
Kathleen Matthews, Ph.D., a founder and chair emeritus of the GCC and Stewart Memorial Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology Emerita, Rice University, said, “We are delighted that Houston Methodist Research Institute has become the eighth member of the GCC, and we look forward to further engaging its faculty, researchers, postdoctoral fellows and staff in the many GCC research and training enterprises. HMRI’s strengths in cancer, regenerative medicine, infectious disease, neuroscience, and translational imaging technologies fit very well with GCC’s existing and anticipated scientific endeavors.”
A dynamic collaboration of basic and translational scientists, researchers, clinicians, postdoctoral fellows and Ph.D. students, the GCC merges the strengths of its member institutions to establish interdisciplinary research and training initiatives in the quantitative biomedical sciences, and applies the resulting knowledge to the treatment and prevention of disease and the improvement of human health.
“Over the years, HMRI has greatly valued our collaborations with institutions that are members of the GCC,” said Edward A. Jones, President and CEO of HMRI. “Research synergies among GCC institutions create a culture of creativity that opens new opportunities for discoveries that positively impact human health. Membership in the GCC now provides a wonderful opportunity to add our many strengths to the consortium, including world-class research in cancer, heart and cardiovascular medicine, immunobiology, and nanomedicine, and more than 20 core facilities that provide our investigators and external researchers access to exceptional scientific technology. “
Adds GCC Oversight Committee Chair Claudia Neuhauser, Ph.D., Associate Vice President and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer, University of Houston, “HMRI is a natural fit for the multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional focus of the GCC, and we are pleased that HMRI is now a full partner in our efforts to generate new collaborations in biomedical research.”
Located at the BioScience Research Collaborative at Rice University, GCC focuses on programs and research initiatives at the interface of the biology, medicine and quantitative sciences and promotes the acquisition and establishment of shared equipment and core facilities across its member institutions. Its training programs and many of its research initiatives receive funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. GCC also administers a collaborative research seed grant program funded by the John S. Dunn Foundation.
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