The Animal Behavior Research Group (ABRG) is run by Drs. Maestripieri and Mateo for faculty and students studying the evolution of social and individual behavior and their neuroendocrine mechanisms in natural ecological contexts and life histories. It draws not only Institute members, but also faculty from Departments of Ecology and Evolution, Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Anthropology, Psychology and Comparative Human Development as well as the Committee on Evolutionary Biology and BSD affiliates at the Field Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Park Zoo and Brookfield Zoo. It hosts a weekly Animal Behavior Brownbag Seminar Series.
Researchers in the Institute can use the facilities of the Brain Research Imaging Center (BRIC) for functional imaging.
Dr. McClintock served on the Executive Board of the Brain Research Institute (BRI) for many years, instilling a strong link between the Institute and the Foundation. Several other IMB investigators are also members of the Brain Research Institute and have received research support in the form of seed grants.
The Cancer Research Center is an integral collaborator with the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research (CIHDR). The interaction between the IMB and the Center has fused an important link between cancer research, biopsychology and neuroscience, which may greatly enhance our understanding of the disease.
The CCSN is housed within the Department of Psychology, and its membership spans many departments and divisions across the university. The Center supports specialized research resources (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging, high density event related brain potentials, electroencephalography, electromyography, autonomic psychophysiology, neuroendocrine and immune assays, biostatistics, patient populations); multidisciplinary collaborative research development through pilot programs; program enrichment through interdisciplinary speaker series, meetings, workshops, conferences, retreats, network activities, and special events; and training through participating doctoral programs, medical rotations and fellowship programs, and M.D./Ph.D. programs, including the outreach to include women and minorities. Drs. Kay and Maestripieri are members of the CCSN.
The Center for Integrative Neuroscience and Neuroengineering Research (CINNR) supports research in systems and behavioral neuroscience as a collaborative venture between the University of Chicago and Neural Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Work in the Center proceeds from basic science and clinical efforts and emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the nervous system. Dr. Kay is a member of CINNR and has an active collaboration with the Troyk lab at IIT.
Dr. Sarah Gehlert, the Director and PI of CIHDR, has links with the Chicago Center of Excellence in Health Promotion Economics (CCEHPE), in which she directs the core on Health Disparities. The CCEHPE was founded in October 2004 with the aim of enhancing the understanding and design of health promotion policies. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control, the CCEHPE is a collaboration between the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago for the support of training and research in the use of economic methods for analyzing health promotion.
Dr. Sarah Gehlert is the Director for the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research (CIHDR), a NIH-funded transdisciplinary center. CIHDR is representative of the NIH Roadmap initiative with the goal of promoting transdisciplinary research in order to accelerate basic and medical discoveries. CIHDR incorporates community based participatory research. It holds annual Summer Apprenticeship Programs, which are involved in the mentoring of four Southside neighborhood high school students over an eight-week period during July and August. CIHDR has become an important adjunct to the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center (UCCRC) because of its concentration on breast cancer and community-based focus groups.
Professors Mateo, Maestripieri and McClintock all hold appointments with the Committee on Evolutionary Biology, a unique interdepartmental and inter-institutional graduate program for the study of Evolutionary Biology in its broadest sense. The program is directed at students interested in the interdisciplinary study of evolutionary biology at time scales that range from single generations to the entire history of life and at all organizational scales on all evolutionary processes.
Dr. Kay was a key member of an initiative to develop a unified neuroscience training program on campus, designed to further develop a close relationship in research and training between the BSD and SSD. It includes three graduate training programs: the Committee on Neurobiology (CON), the Committee on Computational Neuroscience (CNS), and the Integrative Neuroscience program in the Department of Psychology. The development of this new cluster presents an exciting integration across divisions that fits well with the IMB's research mission.
The National Social Life, Health and Aging Project (NSHAP) is headed by Linda Waite (Sociology), Ed Laumann (Sociology), Stacy Lindau (Medicine) and Colm O'Muircheartaigh (National Opinion Research Center - NORC). Dr. McClintock recently joined the project as a co-investigator. NSHAP aims to describe health and health transitions of older community-residing Americans, evaluate the relationship between older adult sexuality and dimensions of illness (physical illnesses: arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, urinary incontinence, STDs, depression; mental illnesses: dementia, stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, poor body image; medications: prescriptions, self-medication, and alternative remedies), and evaluate older adult sexuality within social networks and the encompassing sociocultural context.