Center for Dietary Supplements and Inflammation

描述(由申请人提供)：这份Cobre申请建议在南卡罗来纳大学(USC)建立一个膳食补充剂和炎症中心(CDSI)，该中心将对植物性药物如何调节炎症以及如何用于预防和/或治疗炎症性疾病进行多学科研究。最近，南加州大学在促进补充和替代医学(CAM)的研究方面取得了重大进展，这导致了项目/中心拨款的授予，以研究治疗自身免疫性疾病的补充和替代医学(CAM)的方式。因此，CDSI将补充CAM计划，并在南加州大学炎症研究领域创造独特的利基市场。CDSI的主要目标是建立多学科研究，以确定植物类药物调节炎症的分子机制，以便它们或其类似物可用于预防和/或治疗炎症性疾病。美国人每年在CAM上花费约339亿美元，其中约200亿美元用于膳食补充剂。越来越清楚的是，炎症不仅在自身免疫性疾病的发病机制中发挥着关键作用，而且在包括心血管疾病、神经退行性疾病和癌症在内的一系列临床疾病中也发挥着关键作用，这些都是本研究的研究领域。因此，了解膳食补充剂或其成分对炎症的作用模式，可能会导致具有广泛临床意义的新的治疗模式。CDSI的目标将通过促进4名初级终身教职教员在炎症性疾病领域进行的多学科研究，通过8名高级教员高度结构化的指导，并为他们提供最先进的核心设施来实现。该计划将由一个由国家公认的科学家组成的外部咨询委员会进行评估。此外，通过机构支持，10个新的 南加州大学将招聘和培训终身教职的初级教师，以支持和推进炎症研究。CDSI的长期目标将是通过促进创新、教师创业精神、合作研究项目(PPG和机构培训赠款)和临床/翻译研究，建立一个自我维持的、国家认可的多学科膳食补充剂和炎症研究中心。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This COBRE application proposes to establish a Center for Dietary Supplements and Inflammation (CDSI) at the University of South Carolina (USC) that will pursue multidisciplinary research on how botanicals can modulate inflammation and be used to prevent and/or treat inflammatory diseases. Recently, USC has made significant strides to promote research in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) which has resulted in the award of a Program Project/Center grant to study CAM modalities to treat autoimmune diseases. Thus, the CDSI will complement the CAM program and create a unique niche at USC in inflammation research. The main goal of CDSI is to establish multi-disciplinary research that will identify the molecular mechanisms through which botanicals modulate inflammation so that they or their analogs can be used to prevent and/or treat inflammatory diseases. Americans spend~$33.9 billion/year on CAM, of which ~$20 billion is on dietary supplements. It is becoming increasingly clear that inflammation plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of not only autoimmune diseases but also a wide range of clinical disorders including cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer: areas under investigation in this study. Thus, understanding the mode of action of dietary supplements or their constituents on inflammation, could lead to novel treatment modalities with far ranging clinical implications. The CDSI goal will be accomplished through promotion of multi-disciplinary research pursued by 4 junior tenure-track faculty in the area of inflammatory diseases, through highly structured mentoring by eight senior faculty members, and providing them with state-of-the-art core facilities. The program will be evaluated by an External Advisory Committee consisting of nationally recognized scientists. Additionally, through institutional support, 10 new tenure-track junior faculty will be recruited and trained at USC to bolster and advance inflammation research. The long term objective of the CDSI would be to build a self-sustaining, nationally recognized multi-disciplinary Center for dietary supplements and inflammation research, by promoting innovation, faculty entrepreneurship, collaborative research projects (PPGs and Institutional Training grants), and clinical/translational research.