In January 2017, the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research (BRIMR) — a western North Carolina-based research entity that examines interfaces tied to fundamental biological science, clinical science, and clinical care — released its 2016 rankings of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for academic medical centers across the U.S. The BRIMR’s annual national rankings reflect a data compilation of NIH funding by discipline (department/division) and Principal Investigator (P.I.) for all schools of medicine that perform medical research. Over a one-year period, the BRIMR reported that the national ranking of NIH funding for UNC’s Department of Radiology rose significantly from 25th ($5,305,177) in 2015, to 13th ($8,699,480) in 2016, amongst all academic medical center-affiliated departments of radiology nationwide.
A predominant component of the Department’s basic science activity is based within UNC’s Biomedical Research and Imaging Center (BRIC). In a separate 2016 BRIMR rank list released in January, two of UNC’s BRIC-based, Department of Radiology-affiliated faculty members ranked amongst the Institute’s top 100 radiology-affiliated P.I.s, per total annual funding: 1) Professor of Radiology and the Department’s Faculty Development Director for Basic Science Dr. Dinggang Shen — 4th nationwide ($4.5M+); and 2) BRIC Director and the Department’s Vice Chair of Basic Research and Dixie Lee Boney Soo Distinguished Professor of Neurological Medicine Dr. Weili Lin — 60th nationwide ($1.28M+).
For six+ years, Lin has overseen the BRIC’s mission of serving the imaging needs of the University’s basic science and clinical researchers, as well as advancing the rapidly developing science of biomedical imaging. As Director of UNC’s Center for Image Analysis and Informatics as well as the Department’s Faculty Development for Basic Science, Shen is internationally known for his work in image registration, segmentation and classification methods to study neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease.
Equally of value to Lin and Shen to the Department, two other faculty members also drive the strength of UNC’s Department of Radiology in basic science functionalities: 1) Carolina Mammography Registry (CMR) Director Dr. Louise Henderson; and 2) Director of Cyclotron and Radiochemistry Research Program Director of the BRIC’s Cyclotron and Radiochemistry Research Program Dr. Zibo Li.
As Department Chair and Ernest H. Wood Distinguished Professor of Radiology Dr. Matt Mauro noted: “To sustain these kinds of annual rankings, UNC Radiology has had to remain a truly tri-partite department, one with strength in education and educators, cutting-edge clinical volume and activity, and of course, a core of strong research itself. This growth is a testament to our basic science faculty who engage in exciting new imaging research areas. We excel in the areas of MR physics, image analysis, radiopharmaceuticals and epidemiologic research.”
Across UNC School of Medicine, multiple disciplines ranked highly in the BRIMR’s early-year report for top NIH funding in 2016: 1) UNC Family Medicine (9th — $2.0M+); 2) UNC Obstetrics/Gynecology (8th — $4.5M+); 3) UNC Otolaryngology (15th — $2.2M+); and 4) UNC Psychiatry (14th — $19.8M+).
UNC School of Medicine Executive Dean and Curnen Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics Dr. Wesley Burks observed: “We are extremely pleased with these latest rankings. While there are many measures of success, what makes this particularly exciting is the intersection of our clinical and basic science research programs, and how critical each component is to our institution’s success.”