Human Translational Core

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Summary The objective of the Human Translational Core is to facilitate bench-to-bedside translational studies by providing members of the San Diego Digestive Diseases Research Center ready access to human biospecimens of well-characterized cohorts of patients with digestive diseases. Moreover, The Core will provide clinical expertise for examining paradigms that emerge from basic studies conducted in animals and in vitro and relating them to clinical phenotypes seen in patients with digestive diseases. The Core will be led by highly accomplished clinical and translational researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Division of Gastroenterology, with Dr. Rohit Loomba as Director, Dr. William Sandborn as Co-Director, and Dr. Sheila Crowe as Co-Investigator. Drs. Loomba and Sandborn have already established modest biorepositories in the Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) Center and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center, respectively. The proposed Core will build on these achievements and markedly expand and streamline the repository of biospecimens from well-characterized digestive disease patients as well as appropriate controls. Established strengths of this Core include the outstanding track record of the Core leadership in translational research related to inflammation in gastrointestinal and liver diseases; their experience in detailed phenotyping of patients with digestive diseases; access to existing and well-characterized cohorts of patients with specific digestive diseases; access to a biorepository of existing human biospecimens; synergistic interactions and the availability of state- of-the-art data management resources; and strong pathological and biostatistical expertise. This Core will interact with and complement the Preclinical Models and Microbiomics and Functional Genomics Cores by facilitating research to relate biomarkers and preclinical data from animal models to specific outcomes in patients with digestive diseases. The Human Translational Core has the following Aims: 1. To collect, process and annotate human tissue samples, including liver biopsies, endoscopic gastrointestinal tissues, whole blood, plasma, serum, peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC), and stool; 2. To provide human biospecimens coupled with patient metadata to Center investigators; 3. To offer clinical, biostatistical and pathological consultation services, as well as training opportunities. Thus, this Core will benefit the Center members by providing reliable, cost-effective services for enhancing the scope and innovation of their research and its relevance to human diseases of the digestive tract.