A. Introduction and Shared Program Overview This application is a competing renewal of the, Dartmouth COBRE research program titled """"""""Dartmouth Lung i .Biology Center for Molecular, Cellular and Translational Research."""""""" The proposal builds oh nine years of ? ICOBRE-funded research that have supported the development of new concepts and innovative model systems! 'for studying the underlying mechanisms of Jung disease and chronic airway infection, bringing us closer to our goal of developing new therapeutics for these diseases. Lung disease is the third most frequent cause of death in the United States, claiming ~360,000 Americans annually. Tragically, millions more live with chronic lung diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF), and the number of patients is increasing at an alarming rate. Thus, a better understanding of the etiology of lung disease is required, as are new therapeutic approaches. With support from COBRE I and II (2003-present), our Center has grown dramatically, from 6 investigators in 2002 to 32 tenure-track investigators in 2012. Of our 32 faculty, 12 are physician-scientists recruited to the Center with COBRE support. Our faculty have developed novel in vitro models to study host-pathogen interactions in CF;initiated an ambitious program to characterize;;the CF respiratory microbiome and mycobiome and thus develop more effective therapies for chronic, .polymicrobial lung infections;and established an ambitious CF drug-discovery program. During the period of;COBRE l/ll support, our group has published 1,007 papers, garnering editorial and Faculty of 1000 recognition. [Our faculty have also obtained $151M in extramural research support and received national awards. Overall, with funding from COBRE l/ll we have developed an internationally recognized Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Lung Biology with the overarching goals of elucidating the underlying mechanisms of chronic, microbial infections of the lungs and developing new approaches to treat these diseases. The goals of COBRE III are to build upon our successes, establishing a free-standing Center and developing paradigms directly relevant to CF and other major lung diseases, including COPD and asthma. This research will be supported by a Pilot Project Program and four Center-specific cores: (1) Education, Mentoring and Administration, (2) Host- ? Pathogen Interaction, (3) Live-Cell Imaging and (4) translational Research. In this section, we will describe : the Translational Research Core (TRC) and how it will support the Dartmouth Lung Biology Center (LBC).
Respiratory diseases are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. and are associated with a large cost burden. The studies supported by the Translational Research Core will lead to a better understanding of how microbes contribute to different lung diseases, and will further the development of new drugs and therapies to treat chronic infectious respiratory disease.
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