The primary goal of the Clinical/Epidemiology Core is to establish the infrastructure to facilitate the translational research to be carried out in the Technical Development Component (TDC) and the three R01 Projects in the Center. The Core will be responsible for recruiting human subjects, collecting biospecimens and establishing/maintaining a research database. Human subjects will be recruited from the Mount Sinai-affiliated Elmhurst Hospital Center. Elmhurst has one of the most geographically and ethnically diverse patient populations in the U.S. The investigators based at Elmurst have established extensive connections with the major immigrant populations served by the hospital and have conducted clinical research in these populations. The primary goal of the recruitment is to collect biological specimens reflective of this diversity. Also, such diversity will facilitate studies requiring individuals previously exposed to specific viruses, such as dengue fever or unusual serotypes of influenza by enabling recruitment of individuals from known or suspected endemic areas. Informed Consent will be obtained from eligible participants; a questionnaire will be administered assessing variables that might affect dendritic cell function, such as previous infections, vaccinations and allergies; one unit of blood will be collected. A secured research database containing detailed clinical and epidemiological information on the participant will be established. The Core will generate a research code for each blood specimen to be transferred to the investigators of the TDC or the other research projects for subsequent processing and banking. One additional goal of the Core is to serve as a conduit for the transfer of coded human tracheal samples from Otolaryngology to the TDC for subsequent processing and banking. Processed research data obtained in the TDC and research projects will be incorporated into the Core database. Additionally, the Clinical/Epidemiology Core will be responsible for providing epidemiology and biostatistical support for the analysis of human response variability.
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