This issue of Helix highlights Rosalind Franklin University’s thriving research enterprise. Our research in basic and applied science — the discovery and application of knowledge — is foundational to our mission to educate health and biomedical professionals who will improve the wellness of all people.
Evidence of our shared mission springs from these pages, where scientists and clinicians, faculty and students across RFU’s therapeutic centers of excellence and more than 30 graduate programs ask questions aimed at transforming health and saving lives.
Nationally recognized RFU researchers are working in powerful, interdisciplinary collaboration to investigate psychology, movement disorders, health equity, interprofessional evidence-based practice and advanced simulation in health care. We’re dedicated to the study of brain diseases, genetic diseases, cancer, immunology and infection. Stem cell and regenerative medicine, proteomics, cardiac resuscitation, clinical immunology and drug discovery/medicinal chemistry are also areas of powerful impact.
RFU continues to make strong investments in research and innovation. In June, we completed the final buildout of 14,000 square feet of wet lab space for bioscience-industry occupancy in our Innovation and Research Park. We’re helping to meet the growing demand for wet lab space in the Chicago region and creating an environment where academic and industry scientists can work together to solve complex health challenges. Studying the use of wearable technology is just one way RFU faculty are engaging in new industry collaborations, with the goal of making it easier to stay healthy through noninvasive continuous monitoring and information delivery.
Our investment in faculty recruitment continues to advance our science and power our mission. Over the past three years, we have added 13 new faculty scientists across seven centers and three academic departments. Early-career psychologists are addressing systemic inequities, health disparities and mental health outcomes at a time of national mental health crisis. The National Institute of Mental Health has taken notice, awarding Associate Professor Brian Feinstein, PhD, a $3.6 million grant to investigate the development of rejection sensitivity among sexual minority adolescents and to inform interventions to improve their mental health.
Our many research collaborations include work on behalf of service members and veterans with our longtime clinical partner, the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (FHCC). Joseph Reynolds, PhD, director of our Center for Cancer Cell Biology, Immunology, and Infection, and FHCC colleagues are working to understand the connection between high rates of irritable bowel syndrome among active duty soldiers and Gulf War veterans, with the goal of improved treatments.
Helix always reminds us that it’s the people of RFU — students, faculty, loyal friends and alumni, and community, industry and philanthropic partners — who give life to our mission, support our quest for knowledge and deepen our commitment to human health and well-being.
Wishing you the best of health.
Wendy Rheault, PT, PhD, FASAHP, FNAP, DipACLM
President and CEO
Ronald S. Kaplan, PhD
Executive Vice President for Research