Launched on-time and within budget, the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse now has prestigious change control board 

Washington, DC, April 30, 2008: TCG, a leading government technology strategy and IT company, announced today that a change control board comprised of leading neuroinformatics researchers, clinicians and tool developers has been empowered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blueprint for Neuroscience Research to advise on the continued development of the NIH funded Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse (NITRC) Web site, www.nitrc.org.  NITRC is one initiative under the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.

Launched on time and within budget, TCG built and operates the NITRC Web-based clearinghouse to facilitate the dissemination, use, and development of neuroimaging informatics tools and resources and information about them to the neuroimaging research community. The Clearinghouse hosts ongoing opportunities for public comment regarding these tools and resources in order to guide their development and enhance their use by the scientific community at large.

“We are pleased that the NIH Blueprint helped facilitate implementation of a change control board represented by researchers, clinicians, and neuroimaging informatics tool and resource developers from such prestigious laboratories and universities,” said Daniel A. Turner, President of TCG. “NITRC can only benefit by having such a close working relationship with knowledgeable members of the neuroimaging community at large.”

Members of the change control board are:

• Dr. Ravi Bansal and Dr. Bradley S. Peterson, Brain Imaging Lab, Division of Child Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute;
• Dr. Vincent A. Magnotta, Division of Diagnostic Radiology, University of Iowa;
• Dr. Vince Calhoun and H. Jeremy Bockholt, MIND Institute, New Mexico;
• Dr. Christos Davatzikos, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania;
• Dr. Christine Fennema Notestine, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego;
• Randy Notestine, University of California, San Diego; 
• Dr. Xenophon Papademetris, Yale University School of Medicine;
• Dr. Steve Pieper, Isomics, Inc.;
• Dr. Allan Reiss, Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University; and,
• Dr. Quoc-Thang Nguyen, David Kleinfeld Laboratory, University of California, San Diego.

The work is being performed by TCG’s Washington, DC office in collaboration with the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) of the University of California, San Diego, David N. Kennedy Consulting of Belmont, MA, and Neuromorphometrics of Somerville, MA.

About TCG
TCG (Turner Consulting Group, https://www.tcg.com), a Washington, DC-based company, is a business process and IT advisory services company with a focus on grants management and collaboration platforms for science research.

TCG focuses on helping government agencies use the power of the Internet and the Web to better interact with the public, and to generate internal cost savings and efficiencies. TCG projects have won awards for their groundbreaking achievements, including piloting the first inter-agency grants management system, and creating the first inter-agency government system to receive secure information from the general public.

TCG was one of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States in 2001, as ranked by Inc. magazine, and has been on Washington Technology’s Fast 50. The company was SEI-assessed at Capability Maturity Model Integration Maturity Level 2 in April 2004 and is one of about 701 companies worldwide to have achieved such recognition of process excellence.

For more information, contact David G. Cassidy on 202–742-8471 or david.cassidy@tcg.com.
 
About the National Institutes of Health
NIH is the steward of medical and behavioral research for the Nation. Its mission is science in pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.

The goals of the agency are to:

1. foster fundamental creative discoveries, innovative research strategies, and their applications as a basis to advance significantly the Nation’s capacity to protect and improve health;
2. develop, maintain, and renew scientific human and physical resources that will assure the Nation’s capability to prevent disease;
3. expand the knowledge base in medical and associated sciences in order to enhance the Nation’s economic well-being and ensure a continued high return on the public investment in research; and
4. exemplify and promote the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science. 

In realizing these goals, the NIH provides leadership and direction to programs designed to improve the health of the Nation by conducting and supporting research:

• in the causes, diagnosis, prevention, and cure of human diseases;
• in the processes of human growth and development;
• in the biological effects of environmental contaminants;
• in the understanding of mental, addictive and physical disorders; and
• in directing programs for the collection, dissemination, and exchange of information in medicine and health, including the development and support of medical libraries and the training of medical librarians and other health information specialists. 

About the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research aims to develop new tools, resources, and training opportunities to accelerate the pace of discovery in neuroscience research.

The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research brings the 16 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices that support neuroscience research into a collaborative framework to coordinate their ongoing efforts and to plan new cross-cutting initiatives. By pooling resources and expertise, the Blueprint aims to accelerate neuroscience research and to reduce the burden of nervous system disorders. Working together, representatives from the partner Institutes, Centers, and Offices identify pervasive challenges in neuroscience and any technological barriers to solving them. This enables the Blueprint to support the development of new tools, training opportunities, and other resources to assist neuroscientists in both basic and clinical research.

Each year from 2007 to 2009, the Blueprint will focus on one of three themes: neurodegeneration, neurodevelopment, and neuroplasticity.

For more information about the NIH Blueprint, see http://neuroscienceblueprint.nih.gov/.