This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Following the successful recruitment to Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) of four new tenure track hires in the previous COBRE years into the Dept. of Microbiology/Immunology (M/I): Drs. Paula Sundstrom, Deborah Hogan, Brent Berwin, and Mary Jo Turk (latter as a joint recruitment with the Norris Cotton Cancer Center), an additional tenure-track hire was made during the current reporting year of 7/1/05 - 6/30/06. Dr. Jose Conejo-Garcia, M.D./ Ph.D., joined the M/I department in September of 2005, following a very successful postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Conejo-Garcia was the top candidate of our search for an immunologist who would complement our existing strengths within the COBRE program, the M/I department, and the greater Immunology Program at DMS. Dr. Conejo-Garcia also received a secondary faculty appointment in the Department of Medicine, which also provided some additional funding for his start-up package. Indeed, Dr. Conejo-Garcia s research focus on a type of dendritic cell sharing certain properties with endothelial cells and important for the angiogenesis required to support solid tumor growth has obvious implications for T cell responses to tumors and thus fits in very well with the existing community and expands our research breadth. Dr. Conejo-Garcia s recruitment package was greatly aided by COBRE development funds. In addition, Dr. Conejo-Garcia was made director of COBRE Project 4 as of 9/1/05 with the unanimous approval of the senior mentors of COBRE, our Internal Advisory Committee (IAC), and our External Advisory Committee (EAC). His dedicated senior mentors are Drs. Fiering and Noelle, who are most appropriate as they have focused their research, respectively, on anti-tumor immunity; and gene expression, including genetic constructions that will allow Dr. Conejo-Garcia to test his novel approaches to modulating solid tumor growth. Dr. Conejo-Garcia replaced Dr. Loren Erickson, Ph.D. (Microbiology and Immunology Department), who received both Myeloma Foundation and NIH R15 funding as PI during his tenure as COBRE Project 4 Leader, and who accepted a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Virginia in the fall of 2005. Similarly, COBRE development funds have been utilized, and were essential, to the hiring of four junior faculty members at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), as reported in previous APR summaries: 1) Dr. Vaughn S. Cooper, Ph.D.; 2) Cheryl A. Whistler, Ph.D.; 3) Deena Small, Ph.D.; and 4) Dr. Charles Warren, Ph.D. Unfortunately, Dr. Warren died in a tragic accident in August of 2005. In addition to the progress Drs. Cooper, Whistler, and Small have made in setting up their research programs, as assisted by COBRE development funds, Dr. Lisa Clark at UNH also continues to receive COBRE support. In addition to her collaborative effort on Project 2, she competed successfully for a COBRE Pilot Project funding in the current COBRE year. These recruitments also are integral to broadening the scope of our collective immunology/inflammation research to help us achieve our goal of establishing a freestanding, functional center. Concurrent to the development of the M/I Department has been the expansion of the NIH/NCI-supported Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC), now under the leadership of director Dr. Mark Israel (and with senior mentoring COBRE faculty member Dr. Randy Noelle as the Director of the Immunology and Cancer Immunotherapy Program of the NCCC). Together with the large planned expansion of research investigators in the Department of Medicine coordinate with the recently recruited Chair of the Department of Medicine, these developments should combine to provide a much stronger cohort of PI's who have interests related to immunology/inflammation. In addition, our efforts to merge COBRE Core B with the Immune Monitoring Lab (IML) housed in the NCCC, and the integral nature of the IML in both basic and translational immunologic research at DMS/DHMC, have significantly broadened the impact of the immunology COBRE at our institutions. Indeed, with assistance in putting together the financial underpinnings by Dr. Green, DMS recently created a new Immunotherapy Center (IC), with Dr. Randy Noelle, COBRE senior faculty member, as its director. The IC will focus on .translational/clinical trials investigation in three areas: cancer, autoimmune diseases, and biodefense/emerging infectious diseases.
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