? This application requests $3,221,187 of matching funds to finish 31,000 asf/45,400 gsf on the second and third floors of the Davis building. The finished space will house newly created Autoimmunity and Immunotherapeutics Center that will closely collaborate with what is probably the largest Type 1 diabetes center in the country devoted to both clinical care and Type 1 (the autoimmune form) diabetes research occupying the remaining 63,100 gross square feet of the building. ? ? A revolution in our understanding of both autoimmune diseases and immunotherapeutics and a faculty at the forefront of both of these fields, has led to this proposal. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disorder and a common paradigm of disease prediction can be applied to both organ specific and non-organ specific autoimmunity, and such autoimmune disorders are probably more similar than different, differing primarily in the autoantigens that are the target of autoimmunity. Thus, there is a tremendous benefit in sharing ideas, equipment, reagents, conferences and pioneering prospective studies of autoimmunity. The shelled space when finished will house faculty and their laboratories devoted to basic and clinical research with research programs in type 1 diabetes, transplantation immunobiology, clinical immunology and rheumatology. Initial faculty will have appointments in pediatric and adult endocrinology, genetics, preventive medicine, cell and structural biology, immunology, rheumatology, clinical immunology, autoimmune pulmonary and gastroenterology disorders and will be a resource not only for the campus but also for national/international scientists. The nidus of the program faculty has already developed many close ties despite current geographic dispersion. They have successfully competed in the past four years for a National Institutes of Health Diabetes Endocrine Research Center, an Autoimmunity Center of Excellence, an Autoimmunity Prevention Center, an Islet Cell Resource Center and a Beta-biology consortium Center. There is an opportunity to create interdisciplinary programs where therapy of disorders such as type 1 diabetes and celiac disease are approached not as an endocrine or gastrointestinal disorder but at their immunologic root. In addition disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis will benefit from the disease prediction paradigms and assay technology already developed in studies of type 1 diabetes. Finally, our faculty is dedicated to training of the next generation of basic and clinical researchers and these efforts also are critically dependent upon shared facilities. The University of Colorado Board of Regents has approved the 4 story plus partial basement 108,500 gsf Barbara Davis Center at Fitzsimons as an integral component of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. ? ?
