Immunoengineering Postdoctoral Training Program - Resubmission - 1

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The objective of this new Immuno-Engineering Postdoctoral Training (ImEPosT) Program is to train a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists in the emerging field of immunoengineering, by taking advantage of the strengths of University of Chicago mentors in identifying the most pressing questions in immunology and combining that with a growing body of bioengineers who create new tools, technologies, and algorithms to push the technical boundaries to address those questions. Anchored by a collegial and cohesive body of 36 mentors across the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) and the Biological Sciences Division (BSD), The ImEPosT program will select the most promising postdoctoral trainees from bioengineering and immunology backgrounds to participate on a two-year program of collaborative research across the immunology-bioengineering interface that includes a flexible didactic component to build important skills like project development and management, grant writing, teaching, science communication, outreach, and career planning. In the laboratory, the mentors have expertise in six major areas: (A) Allergy, Autoimmunity, & Transplantation; (B) Vaccines; (C) Immuno-oncology; (D) Cellular & Molecular Immunology; (E) Computational & Systems Immunology; and (F) Microbiome. These mutually-overlapping areas of expertise have created a portfolio of collaborative projects. These include improving vaccination outcomes through in silico modeling of the effects of adjuvants on the immune system; systems approaches to delineate the molecular mechanisms of communication between commensal microbes with the immune system and the digestive system that lead to homeostasis versus disease; organotypic devices to model neutrophil swarming and activation during early inflammatory activation; protein engineering and computational approaches to deliver cytokine receptor `superagonists' as adjuvants in vaccines or cancer immunotherapies. Ultimately, ongoing projects across the 36 participating PME and BSD laboratories seek to use unconventional approaches to deliver new insights to gaps in knowledge in immunology, therapies that correct immunologic dysfunction or loss-of-function, and also diagnostics to identify potential routes of intervention. Led by Profs. Melody A. Swartz and Maria-Luisa Alegre, with Dr. Shann S. Yu (Scientific Director of the Chicago Immunoengineering Innovation Center) as the program administrator, the ImEPosT program will build on an outstanding infrastructure for postdoctoral training at UChicago together with a history of success of its faculty in mentoring prior trainees into successful careers in academia, government, and industry to create a new program that addresses emerging engineering needs in the rapidly evolving fields of immunopathology and immunotherapy.