External Advisory Committee

The External Advisory Committee (EAC) will provide External Evaluation of the scientific progress of the PR-INBRE on an annual basis, and provide written recommendations over any concerns regarding scientific progress or administrative matters of the program. EAC members are selected by invitation of the PI in accordance with their expertise in one or more thematic focus areas of the program. The present EAC consists of 5 members that are renowned scientists with expertise in the selected thematic areas: James R. Brown, Ph.D. (Director, Infectious Disease Therapy Area Unit, Computational Biology, Projects, Clinical Platforms & Sciences, GlaxoSmithKlein, Collegeville, PA), Reinhard Laubenbacher, Ph.D. (Professor, Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, Co-Director of the Center for Quantitative Medicine, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT), Stephen Cutler, Ph.D., (Professor and Dean, School of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC), and Sanjay Malhotra, Ph.D., (Professor, Dept. of Radiological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA). Barring any unforeseen changes in the next two years, these PR-INBRE EAC members will continue in the next funding period (Letters of Support provided). In an effort to establish gender and cultural diversity, the PR-INBRE will recruit a new EAC member, Verónica Martínez Cerdeño, Ph.D. She is a Neuroscientist specializing in Autism Research at UC Davis. Once confirmed by the PO, Dr. Martinez Cerdeño will join the committee at our next Meeting in 2019 a nd continue on through the next cycle. Dr. Martinez Cerdeño will provide mentorship to neuroscience investiga tors of the PRINBRE and the COBRE Center for Neuroplasticity. The responsibilities of the EAC will be to review and approve all peer-reviewed DRPP research proposals prior to funding, evaluate individual annual progress reports presented by the DRPP investigators to the EAC at the Annual EAC Meeting and evaluate the advanced draft of our Annual Research Progress and Performance Reports (RPPR) prior to submission. The EAC will provide an external assessment of the progress made on the scientific goals of the PR-INBRE for each year and a summary of this written assessment is included as part of the RPPR and SIRs report. Consequently, there will be an annual face-to-face meeting with the EAC prior to the date of submission of the annual RPPR.