Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center
Mission Statement
The Sandler Asthma Basic Research Center (SABRE Center) at UCSF is an investigative unit dedicated to basic discovery in asthma research. The SABRE Center is nucleated by a small group of basic scientists who are supported by advanced technology cores. A monthly seminar series promotes integration of the SABRE Center into the more extended UCSF research community to facilitate collaboration and to increase awareness for needs in fundamental discovery in asthma research.
Founded in 1999, the SABRE Center is made possible by the generous support of the Sandler Foundation.
Summary of Accomplishments over the Past Year
We have just finished our third year with a full complement of SABRE Center Investigators in place on the Parnassus campus at UCSF. We have organized an efficient scientific unit and our relatively small cadre of scientists and collaborators are beginning to make important contributions to the basic understanding of allergy and asthma.
Despite the difficult funding environment, our young investigators are attracting individual awards in support of their work. Integration with the clinical Asthma Center has strengthened such that our first SABRE Center Program Project could be submitted to the NIH.
Seed funds from our innovative grants program led to the discoveries at UCSF of the biochemical pathway underlying the biology of ORMDL proteins, which remain the strongest risk for childhood asthma in multiple genome-wide association studies in human patients, and for optimization of biomarkers to define subsets of asthma patients that are being used in clinical trials to guide novel therapies.
We look forward to continued successes in the coming year as we continue with our mission to conquer asthma.
Hot Off the Press
We recently had a paper published online at Science Express, titled "Eosinophils Sustain Adipose Alternatively Activated Macrophages Associated with Glucose Homeostasis." To access the abstract or the entire article, please click on the following links.