The Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center (CSCC) in the Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health, was selected to serve as the Genomics and Informatics Center (GIC) for the SubPopulations and InteRmediate Outcome Measures in COPD Study (SPIROMICS).  SPIROMICS supports the prospective collection and analysis of phenotypic, biomarker, genetic, genomic, and clinical data from subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for the purpose of identifying patient subpopulations and surrogate markers for use in future clinical trials. The study is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The CSCC contract spans seven years, and the total award is $8,192,632.  This award represents a successful pan-campus effort, with contributing faculty from the CSCC and Department of Biostatistics, the Departments of Medicine and of Bioinformatics in the School of Medicine (SOM), and the School of Information and Library Science (SILS).  Dr. Lisa LaVange, Director of the CSCC and Professor of the Practice of Biostatistics, is the Principal Investigator of the GIC.  Co-Investigators include Drs. Richard Boucher, Claire Doerschuk, Wanda O'Neil in SOM, Drs. Fred Wright and Wei Sun in Biostatistics, and Drs. Jane Greenberg and Javed Mostafa in SILs. Regarding this new collaboration, Dr. Lavange said, "The results from this study have the potential to rapidly accelerate the development of new therapies for COPD and its clinical subtypes.  We are very excited to be working with colleagues from all across the UNC-CH campus in this exciting and important study."

In addition to UNC-CH, awards were made to six clinical centers (Columbia University, University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at San Francisco, University of Michigan, University of Utah, and Wake Forest University) and a radiology center (University of Iowa).   Subjects will be enrolled at each of the clinical centers, undergo molecular fingerprinting and extensive phenotyping at a baseline clinical examination, and be followed for three years to identify disease outcomes.  The clinical and molecular data will be analyzed to determine homogeneous patient subgroups and to identify and validate surrogate markers of disease severity which will be useful as intermediate outcome measures for future therapeutic clinical trials. Secondary aims are to clarify the natural history of COPD, to develop bioinformatics resources that will enable the utilization and sharing of data in studies of COPD and related diseases, and to create a collection of clinical, biomarker, radiographic, and genetic data that can be used by external investigators for other studies of COPD.