College of Veterinary Medicine
Center for Retrovirus Research

Core Leader: Patrick Green, PhD, The Ohio State University

The Administrative and Biostatistics Core will provide centralized grant administration, data processing, and all statistical support and analyses for the projects. This core will also serve to amalgamate the investigators, their experimental findings and their ideas, evaluation of research efforts and direct the summary efforts toward the Program outcome.

The specific aims of the Administrative and Biostatistics Core are:

1. Provide basic administrative and services to the investigators. This includes the management of project supplies, filing, development of memos, meeting minutes and communications covering all operations, including publications. By design, this core will provide investigators with clear lines of scientific and administrative communication to promote collaboration among team members, aid in the prioritization of resources, and facilitate resolution of any problems that affect team members.
2. Provide statistical analyses for all projects. A) To collaborate with project investigators in the formulation of hypotheses and study design; B) To conduct and direct the statistical analysis of data including both descriptive summary statistics and sophisticated inferential procedures; C) Efforts by the Biostatistics Department shall include timely review, quality assurance, dissemination of the results gleaned from investigations in all projects.
3. Organize monthly meetings of the Program Steering Committee. This steering committee shall consist of the Project and Core PIs.
4. Organize bi-weekly Program Project Retrovirology Journal Club meetings for all members of the project and their laboratory members.
5. Organize a semiannual Internal Review Board meeting where a panel of experts shall assess the Program effectiveness and experimental progress, research directions, technical approaches, statistical evaluation, and administrative effectiveness.
6. Organize an annual External Review Panel meeting. The members of External Review Panel shall review all experimental findings and outcomes, help prioritize investigations, review the coordination of collaborations, and evaluate concepts that emerge from the studies.
7. Provide publication services to the investigators for project-related communications where this includes the preparation of manuscripts, abstracts and other publications.
8. Provide overall fiscal review, accounting, and real time budgets analyses. This includes reports, verbal communications, reviews and forward-looking projections on expenditures. These can be correlated with clinical and project progress to provide superior program management.