Programs
The David H. Smith Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology (CVBI) has a rich and varied association with several other Centers and Groups at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
NYICE is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, center that emphasizes basic and clinical research on human influenza surveillance, pathogenesis, and host responses to infection and vaccination. Research in the NYICE focuses on clinical studies of influenza infection and vaccination in partnership with immunologists, virologists, and computational biologists. The focus of our center is on the fundamental question of why immune protection from influenza often fails, even in individuals who have generated an apparently robust immune response following infection or vaccination.
The objective of this Program Project is to bring together scientific expertise in migration and effector function to address fundamental effector T cell processes in infected tissues using cutting-edge intra-vital imaging approaches. When effector T cells enter the inflamed tissue they encounter a tissue environment that has been differentially altered depending on the type of pathogen and corresponding inflammation. The ability of T cells sense and interpret different inflammatory environments and the impact on effective pathogen clearance are poorly understood.
Led by Founding Director Dr. David Topham, Ph.D., the mission of this Institute is to:
- Conduct clinical and translational research to understand the etiology and impact of viral, bacterial, and fungal pathogens, the immune responses to them, and to develop and evaluate knowledge-based strategies for their control, treatment, and prevention. Multidisciplinary, team-science approaches to critical issues in infectious diseases are essential to this mission.
- Education and training of clinician scientists in adult and pediatric infectious disease and immunology. Committed to the support of developing the careers of young investigators interested in pursuing research.
The University of Rochester has been awarded a National Institutes of Health T32 Training Grant in Immunology. The grant provides specific educational and training opportunities, as well as stipend, health insurance and tuition support, for graduate students working with interdepartmental faculty advisors. Student trainees are chosen based on academic scholarship and potential.