Administrative Core

The Administrative Core will be responsible for ensuring timely completion of research milestones and coordinating communication and meetings between the investigators, the Steering Committee, and NIAID staff, for two integrated projects leveraging our existing research program of 6 completed and 25 additional planned human-decedent xenotransplants to address key barriers to safe and efficacious xenotransplantation. Project 1 will significantly improve the rapid identification of pathogens relevant to pig to human xenotransplants, by developing a comprehensive multilayered microbial surveillance program for pathogen screening. Project 2 aims to develop prognostic and diagnostic markers of pig xenograft damage including antibody-mediated rejection, acute cellular rejection, and ischemic damage that can be monitored through minimally invasive blood draws. A separate core, the Molecular Science Core, will support biobanking of xenotransplant tissue and blood samples and provide data to support the genomic, proteomic and metabolomic data analysis pipelines across the projects. The operations of the Administrative Core will be as described in our Program Management Plan to support the scientific goals of these projects. Administrative Core will convene progress meetings every other month to ensure that scientific activities are on track to meet the annual specific and quantitative goals of each project. If progress has slowed, the investigators will consult with the NIAID Project Scientist to jointly identify the root causes of the delays and institute a corrective action plan within three days. The Administrative Core will be led by Adam Griesemer, MD, to accomplish these aims, listed in descending order of priority beginning with the most important objective: (1) to oversee the program to monitor progress and outcomes of both projects, conduct internal quality control checks, evaluate progress towards achieving annual program milestones, and institute corrective action plans as needed, (2) to organize an annual programmatic meeting for all investigators and NIAID staff and monitor adherence to common guidelines and procedures as approved by the Steering Committee, and to support the cooperative involvement of NIAID programmatic, technical, and administrative staff, (3) to provide effective processes and oversight for day-to- day operations of research projects, including monitoring budgets, regulatory compliance, and coordinating external agreements, (4) to support high-quality dissemination of research findings and ensure sharing of data and resources as specified in our Resource Sharing and Data Management and Sharing plans.