Michael J. Friedlander, executive director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute
ROANOKE, Va., Dec. 1, 2010 – Michael J. Friedlander, executive director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, has been appointed to a three year position on the external scientific advisory board of the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
The center carries out research programs through its Children’s Research Institute, the academic arm of Children’s National Medical Center. Research at the Children’s Research Institute includes basic, translational, clinical, and community studies specifically targeted to disorders and medical conditions that impact children.
The Children’s Research Institute has five research centers, focusing on: cancer and immunology, clinical and community research, genetic medicine, molecular physiology, and neuroscience, for which Friedlander and four other leading developmental scientists and physicians provide expert advice and recommendations to the Children’s National Medical Center.
The Children’s Research Institute also oversees the educational activities and academic affairs of the Department of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Friedlander is recognized as a leader in brain development and plasticity research. He has chaired the nation’s network of Intellectual Disabilities Research Centers, as principal investigator of a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Research Center and as director of the Civitan International Research Center for intellectual and developmental disabilities in children, and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience and Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Reviews. He is also professor of biological sciences in the College of Science at Virginia Tech.
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute joins the basic science, life science, bioinformatics, and engineering strengths of Virginia Tech with the medical practice and medical education experience of Carilion Clinic. Virginia Tech Carilion is located in a new biomedical health sciences campus in Roanoke at 2 Riverside Circle.