{"279181":{"#nid":"279181","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia ImmunoEngineering Consortium Aims to Improve Immune Response to Diseases","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EATLANTA\u2014A new research partnership between Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology will apply the principles of engineering to study the immune system and develop new therapies that can improve the immune response to diseases.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia ImmunoEngineering Consortium (GIEC) will bring together engineers, physicians, chemists, physicists, computational scientists, immunologists and clinical investigators to better understand how the immune system works and how to precisely modulate it to target challenging diseases.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research teams will focus on cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune and inflammatory disorders (diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, fibrosis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, etc.), and areas of regenerative medicine including transplantation, bone and cartilage repair, and treatments for spinal cord injuries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe immune system and its multi-faceted role in human health and disease form the cornerstone of medical research, says Ignacio Sanz, MD, co-chair of the consortium steering committee. Sanz is Mason I. Lowance Chair of Allergy and Immunology and director of the Lowance Center of Human Immunology at Emory, director of rheumatology in the Department of Medicine in Emory School of Medicine, and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis consortium not only combines the expertise of researchers throughout a variety of disciplines focused on the human immune response, but also reflects an increasing focus on engineering technologies and informatics in improving the diagnosis and treatment of challenging diseases.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBy joining our immense strengths in immunology and bioengineering, we aspire to become an international leader in immunoengineering science; develop new technologies for prevention, rapid diagnosis, and treatment of immune-related disorders and train the next generation of physicians and engineers in this cutting edge research,\u201d says Krishnendu Roy, PhD, co-chair of the consortium steering committee, director of the Center for ImmunoEngineering in the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech and Carol Ann and David D. Flanagan professor of biomedical engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EImmunoengineering is the application of engineering tools and principles to better understand and monitor our immune system in health and in diseases. This knowledge is then used to develop more effective vaccines and therapies against a wide range of diseases like cancer, HIV, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis etc. and also to improve tissue regeneration, wound healing and transplantation, explain Sanz and Roy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cGame-changing innovation and world-class scholarship occur at the boundaries of fields of study where collaborators bring different perspectives to challenging problems,\u201d says Stephen E. Cross, executive vice president for research at Georgia Tech. \u201cThis is the essence of the successful 17-year partnership between engineering and science at Georgia Tech, and medical science and clinical practice at Emory.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EExisting centers and departments that will collaborate within the new consortium include the Center for ImmunoEngineering at Georgia Tech as well as the Emory Vaccine Center, Lowance Center for Human Immunology, Departments of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, Hematology and Oncology, and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in Emory School of Medicine, the Emory-Children\u2019s Pediatric Research Center, and Winship Cancer Institute, among others.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe consortium has partnered with the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), a nonprofit organization that expands research and commercialization capacity in Georgia\u2019s universities to launch new companies, create high-value jobs and transform lives.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe Georgia ImmunoEngineering Consortium is a unique academic collaboration that represents strong opportunities to align our state\u2019s extensive university research base with targeted life sciences industry development in Georgia,\u201d says C. Michael Cassidy, GRA president and CEO. \u201cGRA looks forward to seeing the new discoveries and commercial opportunities that result from this partnership.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe consortium will also collaborate with research partners at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and partners at various colleges and universities around Georgia, the United States, and around the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cUsing engineering approaches to help unlock the biology of the immune system opens the door for exciting new discoveries that can alter human disease,\u201d says David S. Stephens MD, vice president for research in Emory\u2019s Woodruff Health Sciences Center, chair of the Department of Medicine in Emory University School of Medicine, and a member of the consortium steering committee.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdditional members of the steering committee from Georgia Tech include M.G. Finn and Susan Thomas, and from Emory include Rafi Ahmed and Edmund K. (Ned) Waller.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA symposium will celebrate the consortium launch:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia ImmunoEngineering Symposium: \u003Cbr \/\u003EFeb. 28, 2014, 7 a.m. \u2013 5 p.m.\u003Cbr \/\u003EEmory Conference Center\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor more information about the consortium, please view the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.immunoengineering-georgia.org\/index.html\u0022\u003Ewebsite\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E- Holly Korschun, Emory University\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"New research partnership between Emory and Georgia Tech will apply engineering principles to study the immune system"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENew research partnership between Emory and Georgia Tech will apply engineering principles to study the immune system\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"New research partnership between Emory and Georgia Tech will apply engineering principles to study the immune system"}],"uid":"27195","created_gmt":"2014-02-26 13:32:27","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:15:55","author":"Colly Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-02-26T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2014-02-26T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"279191":{"id":"279191","type":"image","title":"Georgia ImmunoEngineering Consortium","body":null,"created":"1449244168","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:49:28","changed":"1475894971","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:31","alt":"Georgia ImmunoEngineering Consortium","file":{"fid":"198866","name":"gaimmunoengineering.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gaimmunoengineering_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gaimmunoengineering_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":6357578,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gaimmunoengineering_0.jpg?itok=fTnSMnmg"}},"279201":{"id":"279201","type":"image","title":"Georgia ImmunoEngineering Consortium Image","body":null,"created":"1449244168","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:49:28","changed":"1475894971","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:31","alt":"Georgia ImmunoEngineering Consortium Image","file":{"fid":"198867","name":"gaimmunoengineering2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gaimmunoengineering2_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gaimmunoengineering2_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":494024,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gaimmunoengineering2_0.jpg?itok=vu76e23A"}}},"media_ids":["279191","279201"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.immunoengineering-georgia.org\/index.html","title":"Georgia Immunoengineering website"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"140","name":"Cancer Research"},{"id":"141","name":"Chemistry and Chemical Engineering"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"149","name":"Nanotechnology and Nanoscience"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"87781","name":"autoimmune"},{"id":"2305","name":"Emory University"},{"id":"9316","name":"immune system"},{"id":"1895","name":"Immunology"},{"id":"7243","name":"inflammatory"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71891","name":"Health and Medicine"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBrett Israel\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearch News\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-385-1933\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebrett.israel@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["brett.israel@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}