CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE
The La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology's Center for Infectious Disease is working to understand how to better immunize against infection and ways to combat infections more efficiently for infectious diseases. The Center is host to the national Immune Epitope Database (IEDB). Working in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, The La Jolla Institute  will be providing this extensive database of knowledge to the entire world. The Center for Infectious Disease is working to help to improve our chances of conquering infectious disease including West Nile Virus, Dengue Virus, Smallpox, CMS, Herpes Simplex Virus, Adenovirus, Influenza, Lyme Disease and new and emerging infectious diseases. Read more

TYPE 1 DIABETES CENTER
The La Jolla Institute's Type 1 Diabetes Center is working to accelerate the path to find a safe prevention and cure for type 1 diabetes. The Center Director Matthias von Herrath, M.D., and his lab are edging closer to a goal that has eluded the scientific community for nearly a century. "The mission of our Center is based on two important realizations," said Dr. von Herrath. "The first is that it will be impossible to cure this disease without correcting the misdirected immune system that attacks the islets. The second realization is that tackling this disease will necessitate the cooperation of many, not only scientists from diverse disciplines such as the La Jolla Institute, but in particular, the cooperation between basic researchers and clinicians." Read more

CENTER FOR RNAi RESEARCH
The La Jolla Institute recently received a major NIH award to develop San Diego's first center for RNAi Genomics Research. The new center will give San Diego's biomedical community ready access to Nobel-Prize winning technology. "The new Center for RNAi Research will provide not only the necessary molecular libraries and instrumentation, but essential help and advice to investigators about screen design, which will undoubtedly lead to new collaborations and cross-disciplinary research," said La Jolla Institute Chief Technology Officer Stephen Wilson, Ph.D. RNAi has been heralded as a revolutionary technology because it opens the door to developing new therapies for cancer and other diseases based on silencing specific genes. "The Center will become a shared resource that we believe will strengthen our efforts, and that of the overall San Diego research community, to make innovative discoveries by providing a dedicated facility for exploring the genetic triggers of disease," said Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D. "It is a powerful technology with the potential to transform human health and we are pleased that the NIH has entrusted us with bringing the first publically funded RNAi facility to San Diego." Read more