Nebraska Center for Integrated Biomolecular Communication (CIBC)

 描述(由申请人提供)：内布拉斯加州-林肯大学(UNL)致力于促进跨学科协作研究，以加强其在分子生命科学领域的生物医学研究基础设施。在前两个联合国生物医学研究卓越中心(COBRES)成功的基础上，建议建立内布拉斯加州集成生物分子通信中心(CIBC)。对生物分子通讯通路的适当调控对于维持健康的功能至关重要，但对这些通路的基本理解仍有许多空白。要揭开这些道路并填补关键的知识空白，需要协作的跨学科研究团队的综合专业知识。CIBC的长期目标是促进具有广泛学科代表性的合作研究团队的发展，以询问复杂的疾病途径，特别是通过将正在开发新的分子探针和分析技术的研究人员与那些揭示复杂疾病的分子机制的研究人员联系起来。CIBC的具体目标是：1)支持早期研究人员的研究和职业发展，他们的研究主要集中在了解生物分子通信途径的规则；2)通过建立系统生物学核心和数据管理和分析核心，利用现有设施和增强研究能力；以及3)促进具有不同学科代表性的综合跨学科研究合作的发展，以追求高影响力的生物医学研究。最初的项目负责人是来自生物化学、化学、化学和生物分子工程系的五名早期调查人员，他们正在进行的项目相互关联，因为他们的基本重点是细胞和组织内和组织之间生物分子通信的不同方面。这些项目旨在识别人体肠道微生物合成的分子代谢信号，开发高分辨率蛋白糖型分析技术，解开肝病进展中配体-Stablin-2的相互作用，设计细胞内磷酸化动力学的分子探针，以及开发专门用于肝脏的组织工程平台。这些项目所涵盖的科学广度表明了该中心研究目标的跨学科性质。加拿大帝国商业银行拟议的系统生物学核心和数据管理与分析核心设施利用了在之前的Cobre支持下建立的现有核心设施。拟议的研究核心，加上CIBC的跨学科重点，将作为一个天然的混合室，促进内布拉斯加州生物医学研究人员之间开展新的合作，以追求高影响的生物医学研究。CIBC的创新之处在于整合了化学家、生物化学家、工程师和生物信息学家的研究活动。它的 影响将是解决在理解细胞如何沟通和整合与疾病发展和进展相关的代谢和调节途径方面的关键知识空白。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) seeks to foster collaborative interdisciplinary research to enhance its biomedical research infrastructure in the molecular life sciences. Building on the success of two prior UNL Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBREs), it is proposed to establish the Nebraska Center for Integrated Biomolecular Communication (CIBC). The proper regulation of biomolecular communication pathways is critical to maintaining healthy function, yet there are many gaps in the fundamental understanding of those pathways. Unraveling those pathways and filling in critical knowledge gaps requires the combined expertise of collaborative, interdisciplinary research teams. CIBC's long-term goal is to foster the development of collaborative research teams with broad disciplinary representation to interrogate complex disease pathways, especially by connecting researchers who are developing new molecular probes and analytical techniques with those unravelling molecular mechanisms of complex diseases. CIBC's Specific Aims are to: 1) Support the research and career development of early stage investigators whose research is broadly focused on understanding the regulation of biomolecular communication pathways; 2) Leverage existing facilities and enhance research capabilities by establishing a Systems Biology Core and a Data Management and Analysis Core; and 3) Foster the development of integrated interdisciplinary research collaborations with diverse disciplinary representation to pursue high impact biomedical research. The initial cohort of project leaders - five early stage investigators from the Departments of Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering - are pursuing projects interrelated by their fundamental focus on different aspects of biomolecular communication within and between cells and tissues. These projects are directed toward identifying molecular metabolic signals of microbial syntrophy in the human gut, developing techniques for high-resolution protein glycoform analysis, unraveling ligand-Stabilin-2 interactions in liver disease progression, designing molecular probes for intracellular phosphorylation kinetics, and developing tissue engineering platforms specifically for liver. The breadth of science encompassed by these projects signifies the interdisciplinary nature of the Center's research goals. CIBC's proposed Systems Biology Core and Data Management and Analysis Core facilities leverage existing core facilities established under prior COBRE support. The proposed research cores, coupled with the interdisciplinary focus of the CIBC, will serve as a natural mixing chamber to foster the development of new collaborations among Nebraska's biomedical researchers to pursue high impact biomedical research. CIBC's innovation is in integrating the research activities of chemists, biochemists, engineers, and bioinformaticists. Its impact will be in addressing critical knowledge gaps in the understanding of how cells communicate and integrate metabolic and regulatory pathways relevant to disease development and progression.