The Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research (CIC) is thrilled to announce that is has received a generous, $1,200,000 gift from the Beirne Carter Foundation (BCF). This gift is the latest step in a long relationship between the CIC and BCF. Beirne Carter, CEO of Carter Machinery Company, Inc., established the CIC though a $3,500,000 gift in 1989. Carter was motivated by his belief that immunology had the ability to transform patient care. The BCF reaffirmed this vision in 2009 with a $5,000,000 pledge to build the Carter-Harrison Research Building, where the CIC now resides. In 2016, a $1,500,000 gift from the BCF provided research funding, travel support, and event sponsorship. Now led by Carter’s daughter, Rossie Hutcheson, the Foundation’s latest gift will establish a Human ImmunoPhenotyping Initiative (HIPI) within the CIC.
As Beirne Carter predicted in 1989, immunology has developed revolutionary new treatments for a host of conditions. Cancer immunotherapy, for example, has made significant strides in improving outcomes for patients with otherwise difficult prognoses. Translating research from the lab to the clinic is a challenging process entailing a host of legal & logistic challenges that not all faculty are experienced in navigating. Even for those researchers experienced in translational research, the administrative work required is burdensome and limits the time they can spend executing their experiments. “Identifying and consenting patients, receiving and processing samples, and engineering experiments is challenging. While my team members can execute such administrative tasks, they require significant time and effort,” explains the CIC’s Kristin Anderson, PhD.
To alleviate these challenges and to make translational research more accessible for UVA researchers, HIPI will provide staff, specimens, and seed funding to catalyze immunomedical advances. The Initiative will facilitate UVA researchers’ efforts to provide customized, optimized treatments based on a patient’s unique immune “fingerprint,” ensuring the right medicines get to the right patients at the right time. CIC faculty foresee working with HIPI to address conditions as diverse as cancer, COVID-19, and HIV/AIDS, among others. To realize this mission, Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology and Jeff Sturek, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, are the inaugural co-directors of HIPI. Together, they represent the clinical and fundamental research expertise that HIPI will weld to improve patient outcomes.
Thanks to the generosity of the BCF, HIPI will facilitate advances in effective, targeted, and minimally invasive treatments for chronic diseases. Their gift will uplift the CIC and the immunology community across UVA, building on the foundations Carter and Hutcheson have provided through their giving. The CIC extends its deepest gratitude to Hutcheson and the BCF for their continued belief in the transformational power of immunological research.