The Cooperative Centers on Human Immunology (CCHI) were awarded in response to RFA-AI-17-040 to support studies that will advance our understanding of the mechanisms regulating human immune response. The CCHI U19 mechanism supports mechanistic and hypothesis-testing studies to understand human immunity applicable to the biodefense effort; i.e. innate, adaptive and mucosal immune responses to infection, vaccination and adjuvants. Studies on immune-mediated diseases (e.g. airway allergy, food allergy, autoimmunity, organ transplant rejection) are also of interest, as these data will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the human immune system.
The program supports the centralized infrastructure needed to promote and coordinate multi-disciplinary research in human immunology. Additional objectives are to promote public access to CCHI-supported data and metadata through public portals such as ImmPort, and develop new technologies to support human immunology research.
This current cycle represents the 4th cycle of funding for the U19 human immunology funding mechanism. Several of our current CCHI center members are repeat awardees. Emory University, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and Stanford University have begun their 4th cycle of funding (since 2003-2004); Massachusetts General Hospital is on its 3rd cycle (since 2009); and Rockefeller University is beginning its 2nd cycle of funding (since 2014). New to the group are Jackson Laboratory, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which is also hosting the Infrastructure and Opportunity Fund Management Core.
