UND’s Host-Pathogen CoBRE awarded $10.7 million renewal from NIH

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- The UND Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) in Host-Pathogen interactions (HPI) has learned that it will continue to receive National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding through the project’s Phase 2. The renewal amounts to more than $10.7 million to UND for the multi-year project.

The long-term goal of this CoBRE is to develop a deeper understanding of host responses to viral, bacterial, and parasitic insults leading to acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. The vision of the Center’s faculty is to continue to inspire interest in the study of host-microbe interaction and perform paradigm-shifting science that supports the notion that disease development is an interplay of the interaction between a susceptible host, foreign insult, and conducive microenvironment.

“In Phase 1, this Center made significant progress by expanding the number of investigators studying various aspects of infectious and inflammatory diseases from the initial group of nine labs to 18 labs,” explained Colin Combs, chair of UND’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, praising the strong leadership of current biomedical sciences professor David Bradley and former faculty Jyotika Sharma and Brij Singh. “Since the funding of Phase 1 in 2016, this core group of CoBRE investigators, among others, made significant contributions to the field by producing 169 publications, $23,617,386 in extramural funding, and 74 speaking engagements – local, national, and international.”

Now, with Phase 2, added Bradley, the Center will continue to “promote research on host-microbe interaction by building on the success of Phase 1 and a talented team from the Department of Biomedical Sciences.”

This team includes professors Catherine Brissette, Nadeem Khan, Bibhuti Mishra, and Masfique Mehedi. The Phase 2 CoBRE will include Mehedi and three additional junior investigators: Abraam Yakoub, Shahram Solaymani-Mohammadi, and Kumi Nagamoto-Combs.

These CoBRE investigators work in an integrative, collaborative, and multidisciplinary manner on research encompassing diverse aspects of host-pathogen interactions. Phase 2 projects, in particular, focus on COVID-19 infections, intestinal dysbiosis in food allergy, gastrointestinal infection and inflammation, and viral interaction within respiratory tissue.

The Center will also enhance the innovative research capabilities of the SMHS and UND by supporting three existing Phase 1 Core facilities (histology, flow cytometry, and imaging) and establishing a new Computational Data Analysis Core. The Center will also serve to attract new investigators to the group by supporting pilot grant mechanisms. The project’s ultimate goal is to transition the HPI CoBRE to a sustainable academic center that will serve as a conduit for increased interaction between investigators from diverse backgrounds with a thematic interest in pursuing research on various aspects of host-microbe interactions.

"Obviously, the subject of microbial-human interactions is of great importance in a global pandemic," added Dr. Joshua Wynne, dean of the UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences. "The grant that supports our efforts in this arena has helped our researchers study not only SARS-CoV-2 and influenza, but a number of emerging and evolving viruses and other pathogens. Congratulations to the team led by principal investigators Drs. Colin Combs and David Bradley on this outstanding and important project."

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Brian James Schill
Director, Office of Alumni & Community Relations
University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences
701.777.2733 direct | 701.777.4305 office
brian.schill@UND.edu  |  www.und.edu