CoPARC Research Sites

The AMC is a state-of-the-art 7.411 million square foot campus consisting of three hospitals (University of Colorado Hospital (UCH), The Children’s Hospital (TCH), and the Denver VA Medical Center (DVAMC)), along with new administrative, research and educational facilities. The AMC is the Rocky Mountain Region’s only academic medical center with a long history of successful basic and clinical sciences research funding. It is a leader in biomedical and health sciences research, generating an excess of $479M for the Denver area campuses and $924M university wide in sponsored research. The 227-acre campus bolsters collaboration amongst clinicians and investigators as clinical and basic science research labs, educational and core research facilities, and the adjacent 160 acre Colorado Bioscience Park are all within walking distance. With more than $98M in current research funding, the Department of Medicine (DOM) is consistently among the top 25 Departments of Medicine in National Institutes of Health research funding. The DOM faculty are leaders in the scientific community, with research that makes major contributions to the advancement of biomedical knowledge. The Department is a very active participant in the University of Colorado’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI). Research subjects with AUDs and controls undergo protocols in the UCH - Clinical and Translational Research Center (UCH-CTRC). The UCH-CTRC is one component of the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI). The UCH-CTRC inpatient unit includes 4 ICU rooms and 9 step-down or medical/surgical patient rooms. The inpatient unit provides 24 hour staffing and all registered nurses on the UCH-CTRC are required to have ACLS and BLS certifications. The UCH-CTRC has the experience and monitoring equipment to manage simple pharmacokinetic studies to complex ICU studies.

Research patients with respiratory failure on mechanical ventilation will be enrolled from the UCH Medical ICU (MICU). Dr. Burnham has been the Medical Director for the MICU since 2006. The MICU is comprised of 24 fully equipped inpatients ICU beds. There is 24 hour staffing by MDs who are board certified in critical care. The nurse to patient staffing ratio in the MICU is 1:1 or 1:2. All nurses have expertise in care of critically ill medical patients with a variety of diagnoses in this quaternary referral center.

Research subjects with burn injury will also be enrolled from the UCH Burn Intensive Care Unit (BICU), the only Burn Center in Colorado to be verified by the American Burn Association. The BICU includes 11 fully equipped inpatient ICU beds. Specialized resources provided for this unit include 24 hour staffing with either a 1:2 or 1:1 nurse: patient ratio; expertise in burn wound care; ACLS/BLS certification by nursing personnel.

Subjects with AUDs will also be recruited from Denver Comprehensive Addictions Rehabilitation and Evaluation Services (Denver CARES), a 100-bed, non-medical, clinically managed residential detoxification facility affiliated with Denver Health and Hospital System. Its mission is to provide safe detoxification for public inebriates and to provide assessment, education, and motivational counseling. It operates 24 hours, seven days a week, with a staff of registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, psychiatric technicians, addiction counselors and social workers. There are 24,000 admissions to this facility annually. It includes a 50-bed acute detoxification facility, as well as a 25-bed long term detoxification facility.

Founded in 1836, Emory University has grown into a national center for teaching, research, and service. It is recognized as one the top 25 Universities in the US. The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center joins those components of Emory University concerned with patient care, education of health professionals, research affecting health and illness, and policies for prevention and treatment of disease. It is an academic health science and service center focused on missions of teaching, research, health care and public service. Its components include Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, the Emory Winship Cancer Institute, and Emory Healthcare, the largest, most comprehensive health system in Georgia.

Research subjects with AUDs will be recruited from the Atlanta VA Medical Center, a 350-bed acute medical-surgical VA hospital located in Decatur, GA, less than 1 mile from the Emory University campus. The Atlanta VA supports a large multi-disciplinary research program with over 140 principal investigators and nearly $25 million in research expenditures per year. Outpatients in the VA’s Substance Abuse Treatment Program who are being evaluated and treated for alcohol problems, will be recruited into VA-approved investigations. A portion of these collected samples and data will be available for CoPARC-related projects.

Louisiana State University’s Health Sciences Center in New Orleans was founded in 1931. Over the past 15 years, nearly $1.2 billion dollars in research funding has generated almost 500 new inventions, over 250 new patents, 60 license agreements to commercialize inventions, and 15 new start-up companies. The University Medical Center New Orleans, LSU’s state-of-the-art academic medical center, opened in 2015 and is a critical piece of New Orleans’ biomedical research corridor. The university’s strong programs of clinical and research excellence include Host Defense, Immunology, and Microbiology. Further, LSU has defined seven Strategic Research Areas, specifically including Alcohol and Drug Abuse as one of these key areas of research. As such, LSU is home to the NIAAA-P60 funded Comprehensive Alcohol Research Center (CARC), now in its 24th year. The scientific focus of the CARC is to conduct cutting edge basic research on alcohol and HIV that can be translated into effective community-based interventions. Its goal is to accelerate the translation of key basic and applied research findings on alcohol and HIV to clinical practice. The CARC provides an integrated research and administrative infrastructure for interdisciplinary collaboration in the design and conduct of studies at the cutting edge of alcohol and HIV/AIDS science. The CARC consists of a multidisciplinary team of scientists from LSUHSC, the Tulane National Primate Research Center (TNPRC) and Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (TSPHTM). Its broad focus is the study of biomedical consequences of alcohol abuse with particular focus on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and disease progression. The mission of CARC investigators is to advance the field by promoting excellence in research, training, and education in the biomedical consequences of alcohol abuse. The LSUHSC CARC fosters a coordinated, integrated and synergistic environment that facilitates maximal productivity and scientific excellence; serves as a regional and national research resource leading research on the biomedical consequences of alcohol abuse in the HIV infected population. LSU is also home to a T32-funded Biomedical Alcohol Research Training Program to prepare pre- and post-doctoral PhD, or combined MD/PhD candidates, and postdoctoral fellows with MD, DVM and/or PhD degrees for research careers focused on the biomedical consequences of alcohol consumption and abuse.

The Medical Center’s 70-acre Health Sciences Division campus is across the street from the Edward J. Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital and is home to many facilities, including Loyola University Hospital, Loyola Outpatient Center, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, the Center for Translational Research and Education and a Level I trauma center for children and adults. The Medical Center is a part of Loyola University Health System, a private, academic health-care institution that is nationally recognized for its specialty care and research in such areas as cancer, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, pediatrics, neonatology, neurosciences, burn and trauma care, and organ transplantation. There are six basic science Departments and Programs located at the Medical Center, including Integrative Cell Biology, Cell and Molecular Physiology, Microbiology and Immunology, Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Molecular Biology, and Neuroscience. Additionally, six areas of research concentration designated as the Burn and Shock Trauma Institute, the Infectious Disease and Immunology Institute, the Cardiovascular Institute, the Oncology Institute, the Institute of Public Health and the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy are also located on the Medical Center campus.

The Burn Shock Trauma Research Institute (BSTRI) has a staff of about 70, including nurses, patient care technicians, service coordinators and service associates. The Burn Center is one of the busiest in the Midwest, treating nearly 600 patients annually in the hospital, and another 3,500 patients each year in its clinic. The Burn Center is based on the 7th floor of Loyola University Hospital. It contains 21 beds, including 10 intensive care beds and an 11 bed step-down unit. Patients with burn injury in the Burn Center are being actively recruited into Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved studies; a portion of samples collected will be used to support the conduct of investigations for CoPARC. The Burn Center was awarded verification by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the American Burn Association (ABA). This recognition is only granted to those programs that have met and exceeded the ACS and ABA standards and review.

The Pulmonary and Critical Care faculty at UCSF includes internationally recognized members with a broad array of clinical and research interests covering the major fields of pulmonary medicine, many of whom lead research programs that are among the best funded in the nation. Some faculty members are engaged exclusively in laboratory-based research, whereas others are committed to clinical activities and investigations. This mix of interests and activities promotes a balanced approach to training. In addition to traditional NIH research grants, UCSF Pulmonary Faculty have received competitive awards from the NHLBI for the Asthma Clinical Research Network, the ARDSnet, the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) Clinical Research Network, the ILD Network, the AsthmaNet, and the SPIROMICS network. In addition to its University Hospital, Moffitt-Long, UCSF faculty are engaged in research at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH), the 382-bed public hospital for the city and county of San Francisco. Patients with respiratory failure enrolled in on-going projects by UCSF investigators will have banked samples and data that may be shared with CoPARC collaborators.

With collaboration from a highly engaged community of skilled professionals and access to world-class facilities, UNMC researchers identify and focus on critical questions that lead to new knowledge and, in the long term, life-changing therapies. Breakthroughs like stem cell transplantation to treat cancer have proven critical to Nebraska, the nation and the world. UNMC strives to strategically grow funded research, to developing globally recognized research programs, and improve the health of Nebraskans. The Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Allergy at the University of Nebraska is interested in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the lungs and respiratory system. Areas of expertise include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, cystic fibrosis, environmental and occupational lung disease, lung cancer, sleep medicine, and the treatment of critically ill adult patients. The Division's research labs, located at both the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Omaha VA Medical Center, are focused on research in airway inflammation injury and repair. The Division also has a very active Clinical Studies Unit involved in clinical trials for asthma, COPD, smoking cessation, and cystic fibrosis.

The Lung Transplant Database and Biorepository (LTDB) will support a registry of patients pre- and post-lung transplant, along with the creating a biorepository related to lung transplant. Donor lungs not ultimately used in transplant will be processed and stored for investigations, including those related to CoPARC. Research being performed utilizing COPARC biospecimens is focused on how different environmental exposures such as alcohol intake, inhaled toxins, dusts, and aging affect pulmonary innate immunity.