Funded Research Groups
Clinical & Translational Science Collaborative
Case Proteomics Center for HIV/AIDS & Drug Abuse
Case Center for Synchrotron Biosciences
Protein Structure Initiative/ Structural Genomics
Oral Mucosal Immunity in Vulnerable HIV Infected Populations Program Project
Visual Sciences Research Center
Clinical & Translational Science Collaborative
The ultimate goal of the Clinical & Translational Science Collaborative in Cleveland, directed by Pamela B. Davis, M.D., Ph.D. and Richard A. Rudick, M.D., is to provide complete service and integrated clinical translational research capability within the Cleveland community that will improve the health of patients in Northeast Ohio through patient-based research.
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Publication Citation
As a reminder, the CTSC must receive acknowledgement on relevant
publications. Please include the following text: "This
publication was made possible by the Case Western Reserve
University/Cleveland Clinic CTSA Grant Number UL1 RR024989 from the
National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National
Institutes of Health and NIH roadmap for Medical Research. Its
contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not
necessarily represent the official view of NCRR or NIH."
The Case Proteomics Center in HIV/AIDS & Drug Abuse is designed to
apply state-of-the art proteomics and systems biology tools to investigate
HIV pathogenesis in the context of drug abuse and provide significant
biomarkers of HIV infection, co-infection with other viruses, and drug
abuse. During the pilot phase, we will undertake three inter-related
projects designed to provide a better understanding of the impact on
immune function and activity in HIV-infected individuals who are also
exposed to addictive drugs, and the important viral co-factor Hepatitis C
(HCV). In each of these projects there will be a direct examination of the
proteomic responses in epithelial or T-cells and parallel examination of
plasma readouts from affected patients. A major outcome of these projects
will be development of informative biomarkers and methods that can be used
in large-scale population studies to further evaluate the impact of drug
use on HIV disease. The Center is directed by Dr. Mark Chance, Director
of the Case Center for Proteomics, and an internationally recognized expert
in proteomics and system biology in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Karn,
Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology & Microbiology and
Co-Director of the Case Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), and an expert in
HIV/AIDS molecular biology. The pilot projects are the work of a strong
pre-existing multi-disciplinary team at Case that combines significant
biological expertise in HIV/AIDS within the Department of Medicine, the
Department of Molecular Biology & Microbiology, the Department of
Biological Sciences (Dental School) and CFAR. These investigators have
already assembled significant molecular biology and proteomics data to
provide testable hypotheses within the context of three Pilot Projects
served by a Proteomics and Bioinformatics Core. The three projects, with
the cooperation of the clinical core of the Case CFAR, will recruit
appropriate patient cohorts to provide relevant samples. The proteomics
team in the Core will then conduct proteome expression analysis of cases
versus relevant control populations, with statistically significant targets
provided to the Bioinformatics team. This team will not only provide
network analysis and pathway identification within the context of the
biological questions to be addressed, but will correlate the proteomics
pathway models with known pathways of drug addiction and HIV pathogenesis
and will infer novel sub-networks by combined analysis of proteomics and
microarray data.
Case Center for Synchrotron Biosciences
Many of the advances in structural molecular biology and related
biosciences are the result of the rapidly occurring developments at
synchrotrons. These include X-ray crystallography for protein structure
determination, X-ray spectroscopy for examination of metalloprotein
structure, and synchrotron footprinting technologies for examining
macromolecular structure and dynamics. The Case School of Medicine of Case
Western Reserve University recently established the Case Center for
Proteomics and Bioinformatics, for expanding the state-of-the art in
proteomics research. This Center provides administrative oversight for the
Case Center for
Synchrotron Biosciences (CSB) which is funded by the National Institute of
Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) as a Biotechnology
Research Resource to serve an international community of biomedical
scientists. The CSB is catalyzing further development and application of
synchrotron radiation tools through a number of multidisciplinary
collaborations and partnerships among an international community of
scientists. The research facility located at the National Synchrotron Light
Source (NSLS) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in New York. The
NSLS, as a Department of Energy funded facility, has as a mission to
provide academic institutions access to synchrotron light through various
collaboration and consortium arrangements.
Protein Structure Initiative/ Structural Genomics
The Structural Genomics Project aims at determination of the 3D structure of all proteins. This aim can be achieved in four steps :
Under the direction of lead investigator Aaron Weinberg, professor and
chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at the dental school, a team
of 22 researchers will unravel changes in the human body.s innate immune
system in HIV-infected people on antiretroviral therapies to provide new
insights into how the body keeps us stay healthy.
A multidisciplinary team from dentistry and medicine will discover why
HIV-infected humans receiving the class of drugs referred to as highly
active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) have increased the incidence of oral
complications, such as a quadrupled rate of contracting human
papillomavirus (HPV). This virus is more frequently associated with the
genital tract and is now being seen in the mouth. Warts produced by HPV
can lead to cancer and increased oral infections.
Visual Sciences Research Center
A powerful combination of protein separation techniques (two-dimensional
gel electrophoresis and multi-dimensional high performance liquid
chromatography), protein structural characterization techniques (mass
spectrometry) and bioinformatics tools to link mass spectrometry data with
genome database constitute the backbone of a newly emerged technology
"proteomics". Current proteomic studies have three major categories:
The Proteomics Module will provide technical support for
carrying out the three categories of proteomic studies as well as standard
mass spectrometry analysis of bio-molecules for the vision research
scientists at the Case Western Reserve University.
