LSU Health Shreveport has received a 5-year grant for $10,529,128 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a new Center of Biomedical Research Excellence or COBRE. The grant has two-five year renewal options.

Funding from the COBRE grant will be utilized to create the Center for Applied Immunology and Pathological Processes (CAIPP). Dr. Andrew D. Yurochko, Professor and Carroll Feist Endowed Chair of Viral Oncology; Vice-Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, and Director of the Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats is the principal investigator for the grant and will be the director of the new center. Serving as senior faculty members and directors or chairs of the key COBRE cores of this new Center for Applied Immunology and Pathological Processes (CAIPP) are:

Dr. Rona S. Scott, Associate Professor and Mingyu Ding Professor of Microbiology and Immunology (will serve as Director of the Bioinformatics/Modeling Core),

Dr. Matthew D. Woolard, Associate Professor and OCallaghan Family Endowed Professor in Microbiology (will serve as Director of the Immunophenotyping Core), and

Dr. Martin J. Sapp, Department Chair and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Willis Knighton Chair of Molecular Biology (will Chair the Junior Faculty Mentoring Committee).

Serving as the first of the key junior research faculty for the CAIPP are:

Dr. Xiaohong Lu, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Neuroscience,

Dr. Ana Dragoi, Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and

Dr. Monica Cartelle Gestal, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology.

This third COBRE at LSU Health Shreveport will provide an interactive training and research environment for young investigators in the field of immunology, as well as allow them to receive the mentorship and guidance needed to increase their competitiveness for national funding. The goal of all COBRE grants is to grow, recruit and retain new talent; expand existing research; and develop robust infrastructure that encourages statewide collaboration.

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LSU Health Shreveport awarded over $10.5 million for a NIH COBRE research grant focused on better understanding the immune system and how diseases...