Arizona Initiative for the Biology of Complex Diseases

Human complex diseases (e.g., asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, depression, schizophrenia) are a major challenge for population and biological research, because they are common but difficult to decipher. Complexity likely originates from intricate interactions among environmental and genetic factors that modify disease susceptibility by altering the fundamental structural and functional properties of target organs at critical developmental windows.

Deciphering complex diseases is not within reach of individual disciplines, but rather requires a concerted interdisciplinary effort. The Arizona Initiative for the Biology of Complex Diseases (ABCD) brings together complex disease-oriented scientists who excel in environmental studies, immunological and clinical phenotyping, genetic epidemiology, population genetics, epigenetics, functional genomics in human and animal models, and development, and provides an interface that catalyzes discussions, promotes unconventional thinking and seeks to establish new experimental and conceptual paradigms. Interactions are strengthened by collaborations on multidisciplinary demonstration projects, co-mentoring of students and fellows, and participation in a new graduate colloquium, “Problems in Complex Disease Biology”, which was launched in the Spring of 2008 and received enthusiastic feedback from both students and faculty.

Many, if not most, major universities have created, or are in the process of creating, Centers for Complex Diseases. Typically, however, in such Centers different groups investigate different diseases, or most groups concentrate on a single facet of complex diseases - most commonly, their genetics. In contrast, ABCD research focuses on the biological interface among distinct but interacting components, which is the unique, defining feature of complex diseases. Thus, ABCD is as unique as the diseases it seeks to decipher.

Director of the Arizona Initiative for the Biology of Complex Diseases: