Hub of research and education

NEW CIIDI SPACE PROVIDES INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT MISSION

East Tennessee State University’s Center of Excellence in Inflammation, Infectious Disease, and Immunity (CIIDI) now has a physical presence to call its own, on the second floor of Building 6 on the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center at Mountain Home.

“This 10,000-square-foot facility provides vital infrastructure to support cutting-edge research,” said ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland at the ribbon cutting for the space on September 14, 2022.

The area features state-of-the-art instrumentation, a human tissues biorepository, and specialized core facilities and laboratories, along with administrative and meeting spaces to host nationally and internationally known speakers.

“Our dedicated space facilitates communication, collegiality, and exchange of ideas and provides opportunities to establish interprofessional and intraprofessional collaborations,” said Dr. David Williams, CIIDI Co-Director and Carroll H. Long Chair of Excellence at Quillen College of Medicine.

CIIDI members who were spread across labs on the VA campus have come together to expand their infrastructure through the development of the CIIDI Human Tissue Biorepository to collect specimens and associated clinical data that can be utilized for human subject research.

“The biorepository significantly enhances our translational and clinical research, including COVID-19 and long COVID studies in proteomics and neurology,” said Dr. Jonathan Moorman, CIIDI Co-Director and Professor and Division Chief of Infectious, Inflammatory, and Immunologic Disease. “Our members also have active programs in cardiovascular disease, HIV, and sepsis and a number of other studies in one of the ‘three I’s’: inflammation, infectious disease, and immunity.”

The center has added other new elements to its infrastructure, including research instrumentation and the Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery core, which focuses on developing innovative immune therapies as well as the discovery of new and novel adjuvants for increasing vaccine effectiveness, and a dedicated Clinical Research Office.

Throughout the changes, the focus continues to be CIIDI member research, which has gained attention in areas such as COVID-19 and post-acute sequelae of SARSCoV-2, or “long COVID.”

Some members are investigating how COVID infection impacts their scientific areas of emphasis, such as cardiovascular illness. Members have been awarded multiple COVID-related grants and authored a number of publications. Several have conducted research on adjuvant and vaccine technology and on the novel role of lactate in infectious disease and heart-attack-induced cardiovascular dysfunction.

As they look ahead, CIIDI leaders are excited about the opportunities presented by their state-of-the-art space.

“The new CIIDI home makes it possible for us to better serve our members, the university community, and the research enterprise at ETSU,” said Moorman. “In addition, the new facility makes it possible for us to better serve our core missions of research and education.”