The mission of the Center of Excellence in Inflammation, Infectious Disease, and Immunity (CIIDI) is to coordinate efforts and facilitate interactions among members of the ETSU biomedical research community in order to advance education, research, and clinical applications in inflammation, immune, and infectious diseases.
The CIIDI serves as an integrated and synergistic environment for basic, applied,
and translational research that is focused on the development of new and novel approaches
to the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of human diseases centering on inflammation,
immunity, and infectious diseases.
A major objective of the CIIDI is to create an intellectual and scholarly environment
that increases our competitiveness for extramural funding including investigator-initiated
grants, program projects, center grants, contracts, and training grants.
CIIDI HISTORY
- 2015
The Center of Excellence in Inflammation, Infectious Disease and Immunity
The Center of Excellence status is granted by the state of Tennessee, 1 of only 2 formal centers of excellence in the state - 2020
The Center of Excellence in Inflammation, Infectious Disease and Immunity Biorepository Established
With this bio-bank, we hope to learn how the immune system responds to human disease, in particular infections and inflammatory disease. The specimens can be stored and later used along with other volunteers’ specimens to study how the immune system works when challenged by diseases. - 2020/2021
The Center Acquires a Physical Space to Call Home
Housed in the William L Jenkins Forensic Center, the CIIDI is one of the most secure facilities on the VA Quillen College of Medicine campus. With over 12,000 sq. ft. of laboratory and office space, we finally have a physical space to offer our members a sense of community. - 2021
The Biomedical Science Graduate Program establishes an Inflammation, Infectious Disease and Immunity concentration for its students
The Immunology, Inflammation, and Infectious Diseases concentration focuses study on specific aspects of fungal, bacterial and/or viral infections as well as studies of infection-derived diseases and their outcomes. - 2021/2022
The Center of Excellence in Inflammation, Infectious Disease and Immunity Clinical Research Office
With CIIDI’s influx of recruitment rates, sample acquisition, and additional large-scale collaborative efforts, it was imperative to create a formal Clinical Research Office.
Progress in genomic medicine threatens to leave behind medically underserved communities,
including the predominantly african american population in west Tennessee as well
as the Appalachian population in east Tennessee. This talk will focus on the UTHSC
100K Genomes Project, which is a statewide initiative to study how genomic variants
affect health and disease. We currently have over32,000 subjects enrolled along with
exome sequence and SNP data, linked to electronic medical record dat, on over 13,000.
I will revieew studiess that are currently underwayin asthma, epilepsy, and cardiomyopathyand
would welcome a discussion of how ETSU researchers might participate and lead studiesin
their own fields of interest."
