SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) _ The University of Notre Dame has agreed to collaborate with a New York-based institute on biomedical research projects, student training, joint conferences and other forms of academic exchange.

Notre Dame vice president for research Robert Bernhard says working with clinical researchers in their specialties at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research will allow its analytical scientists and engineers to continue to work on solving problems of immediate interest to physicians and hospitals.

The nonprofit research institute has more than 15,000 patients and volunteers participating in studies each year. Early targets of collaboration include sepsis, the leading cause of death from infection in the world, and bioelectronic medicine, devices that stimulate nerves to treat disease.