Examples of Collaboration

• The Oncofertility Consortium
• Chicago Biomedical Consortium
• Nanotechnology's inSors Access Grid Node

The Oncofertility Consortium

In the past four decades, medical advances in cancer detection and treatment have greatly increased survival rates for cancer patients. With the advent of improved cancer treatments and the subsequent rise in survival, it is timely to address the host of new health care and quality-of-life issues that young cancer patients encounter. At the forefront of innovation, Northwestern University has developed the Interdisciplinary Oncofertility Consortium, which brings together professionals in reproductive medicine, oncology, reproductive health research, biomechanics, materials science, mathematics, social science bioethics, religion, policy research, and educational sciences to explore the reproductive future of patients facing a life-preserving but fertility-threatening cancer treatments.

The primary centers participating in the consortium are:

• Northwestern University
• University of California, San Diego
• University of Pennsylvania
• Oregon Health and Science University
• University of Missouri

These centers collaborate using H.323-based videoconferencing and Breeze. For more information, visit the Oncofertility web site at http://oncofertility.northwestern.edu.

Chicago Biomedical Consortium

The mission of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium is to stimulate collaboration among Chicago-area scientists that will transform research at the frontiers of biomedicine. Established by scientists at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, and generously supported by a grant from the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, it will:

• stimulate research and education that bridge institutional boundaries,
• enable collaborative and interdisciplinary research that is beyond the range of a single institution by establishing regional centers in key areas,
• recruit and retain a strong cadre of biomedical leaders and researchers in Chicago,
• promote the development of the biomedical industry in Chicago,
• execute a plan capable of improving the health of citizens of Chicago and beyond.

The Chicago Biomedical Consortium includes a collaboration infrastructure as one of the resources it provides to Chicagoland researchers. At each of the member campuses, there is an Access Grid node that provides technicians, administrators, and researchers with the ability to communicate directly with others at other sites. For more information on the Chicago Biomedical Consortium activities at Northwestern University, visit the Morimoto Laboratory on the web.

The Access Grid is a collaboration environment designed and built by Argonne National Laboratories, Futures Laboratory. It provides real-time audio, video, text, shared applications, and access to third-party resources like computational clusters, data storage services, and other things. For more information on the Access Grid, please email ag-info@mcs.anl.gov.

The three primary Access Grid nodes that the CBC uses include:

• Northwestern University
• University of Chicago
• University of Illinois at Chicago

Nanotechnology's inSors Access Grid Node

In January 2006 an inSORS commercial version of the Access Grid was installed in the Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly building on the Evanston campus. It supports the activities of the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science and the Institute for Nanotechnology. For more information, please contact Peter Stairs (pstair@northwestern.edu)

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