The Administrative Unit for the proposed UCSF Autoimmunity Center of Excellence (ACE) consists of personnel who have extensive experience in the administration of NIH Center grants. The principal investigator, Dr. David Wofsy, has served as PI for the UCSF ACE grant during the current cycle;prior to that, he served for 10 years as PI for the UCSF Multipurpose Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Center (MAMDC) grant through NIAMS. Thus, he is very experienced in the leadership of multi-project NIH programs. Dr. Wofsy will be responsible for oversight of the UCSF Center and will serve as the clinical research representative from UCSF to the ACE program. Dr. Jeffrey Bluestone, co-Pi for the Administrative Unit, also has extensive experience in the administration of complex program grants, as evidenced by his role as Director of the NIAID Immune Tolerance Network. Dr. Bluestone will serve as the basic research representative from UCSF to the ACE program. Drs. Wofsy and Bluestone will be joined in their leadership roles by Dr. Maria Dall'Era, Director of the Department of Medicine Clinical Trials Center which will house most of our clinical trials. Drs. Wofsy Bluestone, and Dall'Era will be assisted in fulfilling their responsibilities by Venecia Jacobs. Ms. Jacobs has served as grants manager for our ACE program throughout the current cycle, so she is very familiar with the intricacies of administering this complex program. Drs. Wofsy and Bluestone are particularly well-qualified to lead an ACE program, in that both of them genuinely bridge the gap between basic and clinical research in autoimmune diseases. Dr. Wofsy devoted he first two decades of his career to studies of new therapeutic strategies in murine models for systemic upus erythematosus (SLE), before shifting the emphasis of his research to the design and conduct of clinical rials for people with SLE. He has demonstrated his ability to translate promising work in murine models for SLE into multicenter collaborative clinical trials in humans by leading several major trials, most notably a joint ACE/ITN trial of CTLA4lg that arose out of his prior laboratory-based research. Similarly, Dr. Bluestone has successfully carried his work in murine models for diabetes into large multicenter trials of new therapies for people with diabetes. Drs. Wofsy and Bluestone are thus not only well-suited to the administrative aspects of leading this program, but they are also well-qualified to provide scientific guidance to other investigators in his program.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Program--Cooperative Agreements (U19)
Project #
2U19AI056388-06
Application #
7688825
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAI1-QV-I (J3))
Project Start
2009-05-01
Project End
2014-04-30
Budget Start
2009-05-01
Budget End
2010-04-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$137,431
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Francisco
Department
Type
DUNS #
094878337
City
San Francisco
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94143
Dall'Era, Maria; Pauli, Mariela L; Remedios, Kelly et al. (2018) Adoptive Regulatory T Cell Therapy in a Patient with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. Arthritis Rheumatol :
Wofsy, David; Diamond, Betty; Houssiau, Frédéric A (2015) Crossing the Atlantic: the Euro-Lupus Nephritis regimen in North America. Arthritis Rheumatol 67:1144-6
DuPage, Michel; Chopra, Gaurav; Quiros, Jason et al. (2015) The chromatin-modifying enzyme Ezh2 is critical for the maintenance of regulatory T cell identity after activation. Immunity 42:227-238
Gratz, Iris K; Rosenblum, Michael D; Maurano, Megan M et al. (2014) Cutting edge: Self-antigen controls the balance between effector and regulatory T cells in peripheral tissues. J Immunol 192:1351-5
Sanchez Rodriguez, Robert; Pauli, Mariela L; Neuhaus, Isaac M et al. (2014) Memory regulatory T cells reside in human skin. J Clin Invest 124:1027-36
Stumpf, Melanie; Zhou, Xuyu; Chikuma, Shunsuke et al. (2014) Tyrosine 201 of the cytoplasmic tail of CTLA-4 critically affects T regulatory cell suppressive function. Eur J Immunol 44:1737-46
Jeker, Lukas T; Bluestone, Jeffrey A (2013) MicroRNA regulation of T-cell differentiation and function. Immunol Rev 253:65-81
de Kouchkovsky, Dimitri; Esensten, Jonathan H; Rosenthal, Wendy L et al. (2013) microRNA-17-92 regulates IL-10 production by regulatory T cells and control of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. J Immunol 191:1594-605
Gratz, Iris K; Truong, Hong-An; Yang, Sara Hsin-Yi et al. (2013) Cutting Edge: memory regulatory t cells require IL-7 and not IL-2 for their maintenance in peripheral tissues. J Immunol 190:4483-7
Tang, Qizhi; Bluestone, Jeffrey A (2013) Regulatory T-cell therapy in transplantation: moving to the clinic. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med 3:

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