The Burn and Trauma Research Center of Cornell University Medical College has promoted and developed a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the injured patient. This Center has provided a unique opportunity for collaboration of research efforts between the clinical and basic sciences. The answers provided during the previous study period have led to the questions outlined for the future. A renewed emphasis on basic humoral and cellular immune mechanisms and the pathophysiology of injury highlight the progress of the program. Individual research protocols are proposed to evaluate cellular and subcellular metabolic responses, the dynamics of neutrophil function, disorders of mononuclear cell function, the influences on immune cell function and immunomodulation, the mechanism and therapy of pulmonary dysfunction, and methods of providing wound coverage after burn injury. In addition the psychobiological response to injury will be determined. The integrated approach that permeates each study will provide for accumulation of multidisciplinary data on the patient population. That this is so is supported by the broad representation of medical disciplines in this proposal that include surgery, medicine, biochemistry, cell biology, psychology, psychiatry, and immunology. Furthermore within the surgical group each member has had specialized or postdoctoral training in one or more of the complementary fields of cellular immunology, neutrophil function, mediators of inflammation, endocrinology, cellular metabolism, mitochondrial function, pulmonary physiology, nutrition, and clinical care of the burn and trauma patient. Through this combined approach improved diagnostic and therapeutic modalities will have direct impact on the care of the injured patient.
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