October 22, 2013 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced on October 16 that Stony Brook Medicine has been selected to participate in the New York State Department of Health Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program (ECRIP). $800,000 will be awarded over the next two years to support a project titled Engineering New Pathways in the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity. Clinton Rubin, PhD, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is Project Director. Ramin Parsey, MD, PhD, Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science and Co‐Director of the Neuroscience Institute, is the project Co‐Director.
The award will support four fellows for two years in the ECRIP Center for Obesity Research. The fellows will work with biomedical scientists, engineers, physicians and surgeons to link the biomedical sciences to the surgical and medical management of obesity with the goal of identifying new strategies for its diagnosis, prevention and treatment. The project will include imaging brain structure and function pre‐ and post‐surgery to understand the biological bases of appetite change following bariatric surgery. Judith Crowell, MD and Christine DeLorenzo, PhD will be among the mentors for the project.
“We estimate that more than a third of adults in the U.S. are obese, and the rate has doubled over the past 30 years,” Dr. Parsey said. “This project will provide an opportunity for a team of young clinician-scientists to learn more about the scientific, technical and clinical strategies we use to address this important public health issue.”