University of Oklahoma Receives $11.5 Million NIH Grant to Establish First-of-Its-Kind Immunoengineering Research Center
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The University of Oklahoma has been awarded an $11.5 million NIH Phase I grant to establish the Oklahoma Center of ImmunoEngineering, a five-year initiative to accelerate immune-based disease research.
The center will house two specialized cores: the Immunomodulation Technology Core for experimental work and the Omics Data Science Core for computational analysis, AI, and predictive modeling.
Four early-career faculty will lead research projects spanning coronavirus (search) infection in bats, glioblastoma (search) immunotherapy, peptide-based cancer vaccines, and alveolar soft part sarcoma (search).
The University of Oklahoma has secured an $11.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health to establish the Oklahoma Center of ImmunoEngineering (OCIE), a statewide research center focused on accelerating the study and treatment of diseases rooted in the immune system. The five-year Phase I award, funded through NIH's Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) program, represents what center leaders believe to be the first such immunoengineering hub in the nation.
The center is led by principal investigators Wei Chen, Ph.D., director, Stephenson Chair, and professor in the Peggy and Charles Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering, and Chongle Pan, Ph.D., professor of Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering.
Convergence of Immunology, Engineering, and Data Science
Immunoengineering applies engineering tools and principles to analyze and manipulate the immune system — dialing its activity up or down depending on the disease. For cancer or viral infection, the goal is to amplify the immune response; for autoimmune diseases, the goal is to suppress them. The field generates significant volumes of data, and making sense of that data is increasingly where new discoveries are made.
To support those discoveries, the center will house two research cores operating in close coordination. The Immunomodulation Technology Core will support experimental laboratory work, while the Omics Data Science Core will provide computational tools and expertise to design experiments, manage large-scale data collection, and interpret results.
"Immunology, immunotherapy, and data science are among the most exciting and transformative fields in modern biomedical research," said Chen. "Their convergence in immunoengineering is creating unprecedented opportunities to advance human health. As a cancer researcher, I have benefited greatly using immunology and immunotherapy, as well as omics data analysis to advance a novel therapy for the treatment of late-stage cancer patients."
Chen emphasized the center's unique positioning: "The Oklahoma Center of ImmunoEngineering will provide a unique platform that integrates immunomodulation technologies with omics data science, empowering researchers across Oklahoma to drive discoveries and translate them into improved patient outcomes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such center in the nation."
Harnessing AI and Predictive Models
Co-PI Chongle Pan will lead the data science dimension of the center. His work anchors the Omics Data Science Core, which will develop new computational tools and analytical methods to help researchers across Oklahoma harness the full potential of their immunoengineering data.
"Engineering the immune system requires a predictive understanding of the immune system," said Pan. "By bringing together data science, artificial intelligence, and predictive models, this core will help researchers across Oklahoma turn complex immune data into discoveries that can guide better treatments."
Four Early-Career Research Projects
OCIE has selected four early-career faculty as research project leaders, each paired with two experienced mentors drawn from OU's Norman and Health Sciences campuses:
- Daniel Becker, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, will study immune response and coronavirus infection in migratory bats.
- David Miller, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, will develop neuroimaging-guided immunotherapy approaches for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
- Marmar Moussa, Ph.D., assistant professor in Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering, will investigate T-cell receptor-antigen interactions in peptide-based cancer vaccines.
- Abdul Rafeh Naqash, MD, associate professor in the College of Medicine and Director of Immuno Oncology at the Stephenson Cancer Center, will study alveolar soft part sarcoma, a rare cancer, focusing on molecular vulnerabilities in its tumor immune microenvironment.
Building Research Infrastructure Statewide
Beyond the four research projects, OCIE will offer monthly seminars, research roundtables, training workshops, and an annual symposium. The center will also fund pilot and team-science projects aimed at connecting basic, translational, and clinical researchers across the state.
Oklahoma is one of the states served by NIH's Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program, which works to build research capacity in states that have historically received lower levels of federal research funding. The establishment of OCIE represents a significant step toward strengthening the state's biomedical research infrastructure and fostering the next generation of immunoengineering investigators.