EXCEED THE SPACEPROVIDED.The Nebraska Center for Virology (NCV), established with an IDeA program award in 2000, linksresearchers at Nebraska's premiere biomedical research institutions: the University of Nebraska-Lincoln(UNL), the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and Creighton University. In four years we havedeveloped a national presence in virology research and completed our original objectives. The NCV haschanged the biomedical research landscape in Nebraska, energizing a shift in the research culture towardinter-disciplinary, thematic, collaborative research and has garnered exceptional institutional support: UNL isconstructing a new research building to house all UNL NCV researchers and proposed hires, a commitmentthat recognizes the central importance of the Center to the university. This competitive continuation proposaldetails our plan to build the additional capacity that will enable us to achieve our next goal: to become aninternationally-recognized independent center of research excellence with diverse but complementarystrengths in virology. The NCV will provide an outstanding training environment for the next generation ofvirologists, further develop collaborative research with private sector partners, and serve as a model of IDeAprogram success. This goal will be realized by completing three specific aims:1) to further develop ourexisting faculty through the support of five thematically-linked primary research projects, a strong mentoringprogram for junior investigators, and support of three critical core facilities; 2) to build the research capacityneeded for program project development through targeted recruitment of three researchers in the key areasof viral immunology and molecular virology; and 3) to become a self-sustaining research center throughprogram project funding and increased investigator-initiated grant productivity. The proposed researchprojects focus on the Pathogenesis of Persistent Infections, studying the molecular mechanisms by whichHIV, human papillomavirus, and prions are transmitted, establish persistent infection, interact with the host,and cause disease - with the ultimate goal of contributing to newstrategies to treat and prevent suchinfections.
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