COBRE Award Announcement - NIH/NIGHMS Center of Biomedical Research Excellence
Center for Applied Immunology and Pathological Processes

LSU Health Shreveport has received a 5 year grant for $10,529,128 from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence, or COBRE. The COBRE funds will establish the Center for Applied Immunology and Pathological Processes (CAIPP), which will operate on the LSU Health Shreveport campus. This federal funding has been granted for the next five years with the option to renew for an additional 5 to 10 years. 

   

► The first major goal of the COBRE award is to establish a research center focused on the important discipline of Immunology.  This is a critical area of research that is important to vaccine development and the development of new treatment options for the elimination of drug resistant viruses and bacteria, as well as for the development of new therapies for treatments of various cancers and cardiovascular diseases. 

► The second major goal of the center is to recruit to and retain new talented research and clinical faculty at the LSU Health Shreveport campus and through this new recruitment to expand this exciting and important research discipline and gain national and international prominence for the Center for Applied Immunology and Pathological Processes. 

► The last major goal of the award is to develop robust new infrastructure that encourages statewide collaboration and the growth of new research within the state.

  

LSU Health Shreveport has assembled investigators with advanced knowledge and research expertise across several departments to address immunology. Dr. Andrew D. Yurochko, Professor and Carroll Feist Endowed Chair of Viral Oncology; Department Vice-Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, and Director of the Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats is the principal investigator for the grant and will be the Director of the new center. Dr. Rona S. Scott, Associate Professor and Mingyu Ding Professor of Microbiology and Immunology; Dr. Matthew D. Woolard, Associate Professor and O'Callaghan Family Endowed Professor in Microbiology; and Dr. Martin J. Sapp, Department Chair and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Willis Knighton Chair of Molecular Biology are key senior faculty that played an essential role in the awarding of this application and will continue to contribute to the center through their role as Directors of the cores within the new center.  Dr. Xiaohong Lu, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Neuroscience; Dr. Ana Dragoi, Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cellular Physiology; and Dr. Monica Cartelle Gestal, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology are key junior faculty that are involved in the research components of the center.