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The Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease

Leadership

Michael Gale Jr., Ph.D., CIIID Director
Tomas Mustelin, MD, D. Med. Sci., CIIID Associate Director
Keith Elkon, M.D., CIIID Associate Director, CIIID Translation Core Leader
Edward Clark, PhD, Emeritus Associate Director and Advisor
The Implications of Innate Immunity

The CIIID aims to help millions by:

  • Combatting infectious dieseases (like Ebola, flu, malaria and HIV) by augmenting the immune system;
  • Defeating autoimmune diseases (like lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis);
  • Taking aim at diabetes and other inflammatory conditions;
  • Discovering new ways to fight cancer; and
  • Improving vaccines and recovery from surgery, burns and wounds.

HARNESSING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO IMPROVE HUMAN HEALTH
The Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease

Millions of people around the globe are ill today because their immune system has reacted too strongly — or not strongly enough — to toxins, bacteria, viruses, pathogens and injury. People worldwide could benefit if we understood the immune system more fully and if we could develop therapies that worked with the immune system to combat disease.

With the creation of the new Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease (CIIID), researchers at UW Medicine intend to harness the immune system: to make it even more powerful and responsive, or to control it. In turn, we hope to help millions of people with conditions ranging from cancer, to rheumatoid arthritis, to HIV. We invite you to help us understand the immune system — and to make revolutionary changes in medical care.

Center’s Goals

The Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease will:

  • Conduct ground-breaking research on how the innate immune system functions and how to manipulate immune response;
  • Discover and develop new treatments for the millions of people with diseases related to immune function and dysfunction; and
  • Train the next generation of scientists to use expert knowledge of innate immunity to combat infectious diseases, cancer and immune disease.

In order to be successful, we are seeking philanthropic investment from our community. In turn, your investment will allow us to fund:

Four research “cores” or areas of emphasis. These cores will allow us to define innate immune signaling pathways, conduct genetic testing, use computers to assemble and evaluate enormous amounts of research data, test potential treatments and work with local biotech to bring promising treatments to market.

Leadership. Your partnership will allow us to invest in the scientific and administrative expertise necessary to run the CIIID: research, day-to-day operations and outreach. Investments in this area will be especially helpful in creating endowments to recruit superb faculty.

Education. In addition to creating a fellowship program focused on innate immunity, your support will continue to expand programs that inspire young people’s interest in science: from early education opportunities in preschool through advanced learning in college and beyond.

Join Us

We would appreciate your investment in the Center for Innate Immunity and Immune Disease, a collaboration that promises to have a profound impact on advancing human health. If you would like to support the center’s goals, or simply to learn more about our work, please contact Stephanie Pietromonaco, Assistant Director for philanthropy, at 206.616.1252, or Renee Ireton, Ph.D., the CIIID’s assistant director, at 206.543.8514.

Thank you very much for your consideration.