The main goal of the University of Chicago (UChicago) Digestive Diseases Research Core Center (DDRCC) for Interdisciplinary Study of Inflammatory Intestinal Disorders (C-IID) is to foster and facilitate interdisciplinary and innovative, patient-oriented, research in the field of complex inflammatory digestive diseases (DD), to understand and therapeutically exploit discoveries to improve the health of patients with DD. The UChicago C-IID is now in its 29th year, and, despite being a highly focused research program, has a multidisciplinary research base, with 46 full and 25 associate member investigators, and a total annual direct funding for DD that has increased by more than 40% since the last funding cycle, with $21.1 million of direct cost (not including funding from associate members). The ongoing CENTRAL HYPOTHESIS is that advances in care of patients with complex inflammatory diseases of the bowel requires a structure that empowers interdisciplinary clinical and discovery research investigating the mechanisms disrupting intestinal homeostasis and driving inflammation to identify therapeutic targets and foster translation of basic discoveries to development of new preventive and curative treatments. Taking-into-account the evolving scientific and technology advances and trends, and the interests of our members, we have re-aligned members around four C-IID cores that embrace four major interrelated research themes: Microbiome & Metabolism, Genetics, Genomics & Computation, Immune & Tissue response, and Translational & Clinical. Our OVERALL SPECIFIC AIMS are to: (i) build a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary team, (ii) identify and foster young investigators working in DD-related research, (iii) build a fully integrated translational research infrastructure with state-of-the-art core facilities and cutting-edge, high quality, and cost-effective services and resources, (iv) support a robust enrichment program, (v) promote interactions between the C-IID and other UChicago NIDDK centers and existing C-IID (especially with the Midwest DDRCC alliance). The C-IID has received tremendous institutional support as 1 of 5 priority areas designated for development by the Biological Sciences Division. The C-IID has successfully supported new investigators, but also drawn in talented scientists outside of the field of DD (8 now full members since 2015). Over the past two funding cycles, the P&F program has resulted in over $20.1M in extramural funds, or a 20 to 1 return- on-investment. Furthermore, 43% of the 322 publications acknowledging the C-IID for its support were coauthored by two or more C-IID members, indicating a high level of collaborative science. There was a 5-fold increase in the number of co-authored high impact papers (Impact factor>15) compared to the previous funding cycle. Thus, the C-IID has successfully met its goals of advancing the science and translation of discovery in inflammatory DD. The C-IID as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It provides strategic vision, cutting-edge, high quality, and cost-effective services and resources, and gives opportunity to current and next generation scientists to flourish in a highly collaborative and productive environment.
The main goal of the University of Chicago (UChicago) Digestive Diseases Research Core Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Inflammatory Intestinal Disorders (C-IID) is to foster and facilitate interdisciplinary and innovative and patient-oriented research in the field of complex inflammatory digestive diseases, to understand and therapeutically exploit discoveries to improve the health of patients with DD. The C-IID has successfully met its goals of advancing the science and translation of discovery in complex diseases of the bowel. The C-IID is greater than the sum of its parts. It provides strategic vision, cutting-edge, high quality, and cost-effective services and resources, and gives opportunity to current and next generation scientists to flourish in a highly collaborative and productive environment.
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