# Core 2 - Mucosal Immunobiology Core (MIC)

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2022 · $364,340

## Abstract

Summary: Resource Core 2: Mucosal Immunobiology Core (MIC)
Compounding evidence exists for the role of microbiota and mucosal immunology in the pathogenesis of
rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and spondyloarthritis (SpA). The Mucosal Immunobiology
Core (MIC) aims to provide consultation, discounted services, and development of enhanced capabilities to
support the prediction and validation of mechanisms of host:microbe interactions in biospecimens of importance
to rheumatic disease pathogenesis. The MIC will facilitate collaboration between individuals with expertise in
microbiome, metabolome/lipidome, immunology, statistical data analysis, and rheumatic disease, which is
essential for conducting this multidisciplinary research. Taken together, this core will support research into
host:microbe interactions through 1) assembling individuals with diverse and complimentary expertise for
promoting team science approaches focused on mucosal phenotypes and systemic consequences; 2) educating
young investigators and those new to the field; 3) providing discounted services; and 4) novel methods
development. More specifically, the MIC will support discounted services for the characterization of the
microbiome and metabolome of biospecimens and tissues of importance in rheumatic disease pathogenesis,
including feces, sputum, oral cavity, lower respiratory tract, intestinal mucosa, and cervicovaginal mucosa. Since
challenges in data analysis can often be a bottleneck in conducting productive research in mucosal
immunobiology, the MIC will also support free and discounted services and training in integrated ‘omic data
analysis. The MIC will also support experimental validation of microbe:metabolite:immune phenotype
relationships via in vitro cell stimulations, by providing services, consultation, and support in the expansion of
anaerobic and aerobic bacteria and flow cytometry and density gradient based isolation of bacteria, and isolation
of immune cells of interest. The MIC will develop enhanced capabilities in use of RNASeq to characterize both
host and microbial gene expression simultaneously in intestinal tissue and associated multi’omic integrated data
analyses. The MIC will also develop enhanced capabilities in annotation of metabolomic data through the
creation of tissue specific databases for annotation of untargeted LC/MS data from feces and sputum samples.
Finally, the MIC will invest in developing novel methods for isolating cell populations of interest for use in in vitro
interrogations of host:microbe interactions. By integrating individuals with diverse expertise and providing
discounted services, training and support, the MIC will support both early career and established investigators
in the University of Colorado (CU) Rheumatic Disease Research Resource Center (RDRRC), as well as assist
investigators new to the field of rheumatic disease to enhance overall research implementation and productivity.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10486146
- **Project number:** 5P30AR079369-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Catherine Lozupone
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $364,340
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-10 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10486146

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10486146, Core 2 - Mucosal Immunobiology Core (MIC) (5P30AR079369-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10486146. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*