COBRE Center for Evolutionary and Theoretical Immunology

描述（由申请人提供）：在我们第一个资助期内组装的专业知识和基础设施的关键质量的基础上，本提案寻求通过NCRR的COBRE计划再支持五年，使我们能够进一步加强和巩固一个自我维持和繁荣的进化和理论免疫学中心（CETI）。来自新墨西哥大学和洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室的生物和计算机科学系的初级和高级教师学者将再次开展研究项目，寻求揭示免疫系统的基本设计原则，模拟病原体和免疫系统之间的相互作用，并探索跨动物门的免疫反应的进化。因此，我们将更好地了解无脊椎动物载体如何传播传染病，病原体如何保护自己免受免疫攻击以及免疫系统的比较研究如何导致令人兴奋的新概念框架和范式。我们还将改进我们的指导计划，以培养独立资助的初级研究人员，为我们的成员提供资金准备和管理方面的后勤支持，并利用每一个机会努力改善他们的长期职业前景。我们将雇佣更多与cei相关的终身教职员工，并继续与其他NCRR项目和新墨西哥大学管理部门合作，支持和改进cei在分子生物学、受控环境和质谱/蛋白质组学方面的核心设施。我们还将通过搬入CETI与新墨西哥大学管理部门建立的富有成效的伙伴关系所利用的新设施，扩大和改善CETI的物理基地。我们还将启动一项新的种子资助计划，以扩大CETI的广度和影响。我们将制定多名研究人员的提案，以纪念CETI从NCRR资助中毕业，并继续寻求新的方法来促进我们成员之间以及与新墨西哥研究界的整合和合作。最后，CETI将越来越多地成为在我们州开发新的培训和生物医学研究机会的催化剂，并将利用我们的临界质量来开展倡议和支持研究，使我们获得世界一流的认可和突出地位。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Building on the critical mass of expertise and infrastructure assembled during our first funding period, this proposal seeks five more years of support through NCRR's COBRE program to enable us to further strengthen and consolidate a self-sustaining and flourishing Center for Evolutionary and Theoretical Immunology (CETI). Once again, both junior and senior faculty scholars from the Biology and Computer Science Departments at the University of New Mexico and the Los Alamos National Labs will undertake research projects that seek to reveal basic design principles of immune systems, that model the interactions between pathogens and immune systems, and that explore the evolution of immune responses across animal phyla. Consequently, we will better understand how invertebrate vectors transmit infectious diseases, how pathogens defend themselves from immune attack and how the comparative study of immune systems can lead to exciting new conceptual frameworks and paradigms. We will also improve our mentoring program to develop independently-funded junior investigators, provide our members logistical support in grant preparation and management and at every opportunity strive to improve their long-term career prospects. We will hire additional CETI-related tenure track faculty and continue to partner with other NCRR programs and the UNM administration to support and improve CETI's core facilities in molecular biology, controlled environments and mass spectrometry/proteomics. We will also expand and improve the physical home of CETI by moving into new facilities that CETI has leveraged through productive partnerships with the UNM administration, and we will initiate a new seed grant program to increase the breadth and impact of CETI. We will develop multi-investigator proposals to mark CETI's graduation from NCRR funding and continue to seek new ways to promote integration and collaborations among our members and with the New Mexico research community. Lastly, CETI will increasingly serve as a catalyst to develop new training and biomedical research opportunities in our state and will use our critical mass to undertake initiatives and favor research enabling us to achieve world class recognition and prominence. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE (provided by applicant): Research conducted by investigators at the Center for Evolutionary and Theoretical Immunology will increase our understanding of the transmission of human parasitic diseases and may lead to the development of new therapeutics. In addition, models of viral diseases will be developed that will improve our ability to predict the spread of epidemics as well as evaluate effectiveness of different treatment regimes.