Mission

The Michael E. DeBakey Institute at Texas A&M University houses extensive equipment for the study of blood and blood vessels by noninvasive means. In particular, we at the Cardiovascular Systems Dynamics Lab have developed the sole, extant, chronic colony of Pallid bats dedicated to cardivascular science.

Why bats? The thin, non-pigmented, nearly translucent wing membranes of the Pallids allows the microvasculature to be viewed in vivo ("the blood stays in the bat").

Why eBat? In the past, research has been confined to a few individuals physically located in the lab. However, with your help we can create an open access lab in which sharing ideas, performing experiments, analyzing data, and communicating results is a collaborative effort with researchers around the world. Best of all, you never have to leave the comfort of your internet connection.

History

Expanding a program established in the Summer of 2004 at Texas A&M University...

Research Model

There are fundamental challenges to fulfilling the promise of public research universities to both support research and educate the people of Texas. One-on-one research mentoring, while very effective, is not efficient, and limits the number of undergraduates who gain research experience. Conventional research training programs are very expensive, further limiting the number who can be trained to an elite few. With the need to protect limited resources, conventional labs develop barriers to limit access to collected data, resident expertise, and new ideas. These challenges have conspired to encourage faculty to make a false choice between research and education activities, limit the number of people being prepared for research careers, and erect barriers to outreach activities. We believe that with a number of guiding principles, we can develop pragmatic approaches to integrate research and education.

The opportunities for funding new programs are many-greater than our capacity to support them. To maintain focus, ensure that all funded programs work synergistically, and to promote the goals described above, we welcome any funding opportunity that will fulfill these limitations:

• All projects must be interdisciplinary, allowing meaningful synergy among participants and among existing programs.
• All proposals for funding will yield programs that will be self-sufficient by the end of the funding period, allowing for persistence of our gains.
• All programs must develop a novel model to increase access to research careers.
• All programs must provide a benefit to the multiple stakeholders who participate-one group cannot benefit to the detriment of another.
• All programs must minimize the cost/benefit ratio, rather maximize funds received from funding agencies.
• At every level (K-12 student, undergrad, grad student, faculty member, informal learner), each participant will mentor and be mentored.
• All grant proposals, data, access to expertise, and evaluations are open-source, encouraging reproduction of the new models we develop.