# Clinical Core

> **NIH NIH U19** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2021 · $258,974

## Abstract

Clinical Core: Summary
The main goal of this research program is to obtain in-depth profiles of how human innate and adaptive
immune cells function in response to viral pathogens in tissues and understand how the circulating responses
relate to those in tissues. We will specifically investigate the innate and adaptive immune response to
cytomegalovirus (CMV), as a ubiquitous persistent virus of great clinical importance in immunocompromised
individuals, particularly recipients of sold organ and hematopoietic transplants, infants and the elderly. We will
use two sources of human samples for the proposed studies in all projects (Projects 1, 2, 3): deceased organ
donors and peripheral blood from transplant patients from the Columbia Center for Translational Immunology
(CCTI) Biobank. For Service aim 1, we will obtain and process multiple lymphoid and mucosal tissues from
human organ donors. We have established the necessary protocols and collaborations with Columbia
University Medical Center (CUMC) surgeons and LiveOnNY to obtain from research-consented organ donors,
tissues that are not used for life-saving transplantation. We already have the infrastructure set up to obtain
multiple lymphoid tissues (including spleen, peripheral, lung- and intestinal draining lymph nodes, tonsils and
bone marrow), mucosal tissues (lungs, small and large intestinal sections) and other peripheral sites such as
salivary glands from organ donors whose next-of-kin have consented for the use of tissues for research. The
tissues will be processed in the laboratory and cell suspensions, and/or whole tissues will be distributed to all
projects and to Core B for analysis. For service aim 2, we will obtain samples from transplant patients who
develop CMV viremia through the CCTI Biobank which has a large repository of samples from 1000 recipients
of solid organ (heart, kidney, liver) or hematopoietic cell transplants. There is an existing cohort of samples
from 70 donors who developed CMV viremia and hundreds who did not for use as controls, with multiple
timepoints and samples obtained for each donor. The CCTI biobank will provide blood samples form the
existing repository and monitor all enrolled patients for the development of CMV viremia, maintain IRB
protocols for obtaining samples, and will work with the clinicians to identify additional patients who develop
CMV viremia and disease. This Clinical core will be responsible for coordinating all of the personnel,
institutional assurance, protocols and MTAs necessary to acquire and process human tissues, and distribute
samples to these projects, and will play a key role in the proposed HIPC program by providing novel samples
from the diverse populations that are in New York City.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10074527
- **Project number:** 5U19AI128949-05
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Donna L. Farber
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $258,974
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-01-01 → 2022-03-17

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10074527

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10074527, Clinical Core (5U19AI128949-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10074527. Licensed CC0.

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