The main goals of the Lung Inflammatory Disease-Program of Excellence in Glycosciences (LID-PEG) are to identify natural ligands for siglecs, to generate novel glycan decorated nanoparticles, and to test the effectiveness of these ligands and mimetics in treating lung inflammation and related responses in vivo in mouse models of allergic asthma and COPD. Core D will help the investigators of this LID-PEG to achieve their goals. The Animal Models Core has established and is using a set of mouse models of allergic asthma and COPD. Core D will also generate several new strains of transgenic humanized and knockout mice to study mechanisms in the regulation of siglec ligand synthesis in the lung and to test the identified and synthesized ligands or mimetics in treating lung inflammation. The core will maintain and make available the lung inflammation models for the investigators of the LID-PEG and will help the investigators of the individual projects to design and perform the experiments and to interpret the results. Core D will also act as a training site for students and postdoctoral fellows with glycobiology background to gain experience in lung biology. The Core utilizes molecular, cellular, immunological, histological and physiological technology and methods to analyze the effects of siglec-targeted ligands on eosinophilic and neutrophilic inflammation and its consequences on other pathological features in those models. In addition, the Core will offer help in preparing mouse lung epithelial cells and eosinophils for ex vivo and in vitro experiments. The Core offers a full range of technical support in analyzing the phenotype change and responses of the newly generated transgenic and knockout mice and those of the lung inflammation models to the treatment of siglec-targeted ligands.
The Animal Models Core is an essential part of the LID-PEG program. The studies on the glycan ligands of siglecs of the inflammatory effector cells in the animal models provided by the core will gain insight into the glycobiology of lung inflammation and will help in the development of novel treatments for inflammatory diseases of the lung.
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