A $13.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will support a Cornell-led effort to reveal the long-standing mystery of how immune cells communicate within living tissues across time and space, which could shape new approaches for treating inflammatory diseases, autoimmune disorders and infections.
The five-year program project grant will bring together immunologists, engineers and computational scientists from Cornell and the University of Rochester Medical Center, and combine advanced imaging and spatial genomics technologies allowing researchers to observe immune responses in unprecedented detail.
Immune responses are dynamic and highly localized, and traditional approaches to immunology research – such as blood samples or biopsies – often fail to capture immune activity where it is actually occurring, said Deborah Fowell, professor and chair of microbiology and immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine and director of the Cornell Center for Immunology, who will lead the project.
“The program focuses on understanding immune responses in tissues using cutting-edge tools that enable us to visualize immune responses in real-time in inflamed sites,” she said. “By studying these interactions across both time and space, we hope to uncover new principles governing immune function and identify opportunities for new therapies.”
