The Yale University Asthma and COPD Working Group

The leadership of the PCCM Section are committed to the belief that the most impressive rates of research progress will be seen when we integrate the efforts of clinicians, translationally-focused investigators and basic scientists. In keeping with this belief, the Section of PCCM served, in 1992, as the center for the formation of the interdisciplinary Yale University Asthma and COPD Working Group. This group contains 75 members from many different departments at Yale including Pathology, Immunobiology, Comparative Medicine, Pediatrics, the Howard Hughes, other sections from Internal Medicine, Genetics and Cell Biology. It meets on a monthly basic where it holds scientific, research in progress and clinical presentations designed to foster asthma and COPD research on the Yale Campus. During its existence it has been a hotbed for collaborations and interactions that have led to NIH funding. Early interactions led to the receipt of a NIH Specialized Center in Research Award from the NHLBI. It also led to the present Program Project Grant entitled "Initiation and Effector Mechanisms in Th2 Inflammation" which is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Principal Investigators of Projects and Cores on the Program Project Grant include Jack A. Elias, MD (PCCM), Kim Bottomly, PhD (Immunobiology), Richard A. Flavell, PhD (Immunobiology and Howard Hughes), Lauren Cohn MD (PCCM) and Robert Homer MD, PhD (Pathology). Numerous other awards have also been derived from these interactions including multiple RO1s and Sandler Family Foundation Asthma Awards.