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Research Fund
The Beirne Carter Center uses private funds to support innovative immune system research. Additional funds provide opportunities to pursue promising inquiries. Resources, not ideas, limit these endeavors. The Beirne Carter Center has a track record of using pilot funds to support developing projects that later successfully compete for funding from the NIH, leveraging private support for maximum benefit.
Equipment
To maintain an immunology research enterprise of the highest caliber and to recruit excellent new faculty, the Beirne Carter Center maintains state-of-the-art research laboratories and equipment. We are currently working to:
- Upgrade the flow cytometry facilities
- Establish a biosafety level 3 laboratory to deal with research on human pathogens and human cells
- Purchase modern equipment to measure gene expression in cells and tissues
- Invest in confocal microscopes to image living cells and upgrade flow cytometry hardware and software
Faculty Recruitment and Retention
We hope to establish two new endowed professorships to ensure retention of highly successful and productive immunology faculty and their research programs.
Basic Immunology Research
Understanding the immune system and how it fights infection is fundamental to understanding how and why the immune response can also cause great harm. An exaggerated immune response causes problems ranging from systemic lupus to inflammatory bowel disease, to asthma. On the other hand, a non-responsive, compromised, or immature immune system allows opportunistic infections like AIDS, hepatitis, or even tumors to flourish. Support for this research provides hope for millions whose immune systems are functioning improperly.
Hepatitis C
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) has infected hundreds of thousands of Americans, many of whom have no idea they are infected. The immune system attacks the virus, but succeeds only in inflaming the liver. This causes liver disease, liver failure, and the eventual need for liver transplantation in many patients. UVa researchers, led by Young Hahn, Ph.D., and Tim Pruett, M.D., are making progress in understanding how HCV persists and how to stop it, as well as trying to prevent reinfection of newly transplanted livers.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is a major cause of severe, life-threatening infections in infants and young children and in the elderly. Researchers led by Thomas Braciale, M.D., Ph.D., have recently discovered that when RSV replicates in the lungs, it shuts down the body's immune defense mechanism and also fails to invoke an immune response to fight off future RSV infection. Your support will allow researchers to use genetic engineering techniques to modify the RSV virus and produce a safe and effective vaccine that will appropriately harness the body's defenses against natural RSV infection.
Human Immune Therapy for Cancer
The UVa Human Immune Therapy Center has achieved international prominence for its work in immune therapy (stimulation of the human immune response to destroy cancer cells). Our melanoma vaccine is showing remarkable promise, and the scientific methods we are pioneering could have vast implications in treating other cancers. Craig Slingluff, M.D., and Victor Engelhard, Ph.D., are working with chemistry professor Don Hunt, Ph.D., to develop these treatments. Private support helps fund clinical trials of cancer vaccines, providing hope to advanced cancer patients.
Asthma and Allergic Disease
The increase in asthma in the last half of the 20th century remains a major scientific challenge and a significant health risk. Asthma research at UVa focuses on four factors contributing to the disease.
- Ben Gaston, M.D., and his colleagues are studying the mechanisms that control the pH of lung lining fluid, recently implicated in acute asthma.
- Larry Borish, M.D., and his laboratory colleagues are studying the effect of allergen response on chronic sinusitis and asthma.
- In the laboratory of Tom Platts-Mills, M.D., research focuses on why many people develop a tolerance to cat allergen, but not to other allergy triggers.
- Peter Heymann, M.D., and his colleagues are working to investigate the relationship of viral infections to acute asthma episodes in children.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Systemic lupus erythematosus (also called SLE or lupus) is a disease that results from an over-active immune system that attacks various tissues of the body. While the exact cause of lupus is not known, heredity, environment, and hormonal changes are thought to play a role. These various factors are the subject of intense research at UVa.
Bioterrorism
Researchers at UVa are working on pathogens such as anthrax and influenza to discover new ways to prevent mass infection from a deliberate terrorist attack.
Crohn's Disease and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
In Crohn's disease and IBD, the immune system overreacts and attacks normal tissues, causing severe distress and malnutrition. UVa researchers focus on how these diseases start and how they progress. Your support can help them discover how the immune system can be taught to react properly.
AIDS and HIV
More than one million Americans and nearly 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV-1. Patients with HIV are immuno-compromised, allowing infections and tumors to progress to lethal stages. New treatments have significantly improved and lengthened the lives of many HIV patients, but there is no cure or vaccine to prevent transmission. Researchers in the Myles Thaler Center for AIDS and Human Retrovirus Research work with immunologists to understand and conquer HIV/AIDS and its complications.
Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research Web site
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