The Morris Institute for Respiratory Research

The Morris Institute for Respiratory Research advances knowledge about respiratory diseases in children and adults, including asthma, cystic fibrosis, food allergies, rhinitis, lung injury and respiratory distress syndromes. The institute provides an administrative structure, a shared clinical and translational research facility and opportunities for collaboration on research and training.

The institute connects basic science and clinical researchers in allergy, immunology, and pulmonary medicine, mainly from the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, who are interested in the pathobiology and treatment of respiratory diseases.

The Morris Institute facility has provided shared facilities and resources for clinical research participant evaluation, research bronchoscopy, tissue culture, molecular biology, virology, small animal physiology, and biostatistics/computing. The institute has led to expanded interactions and cooperation among researchers who belong to different departments but share interest in respiratory diseases.

Constructed in 2000, the Morris Institute facility was made possible by a generous gift from David and Sacia Morris and consists of over 10,000 square feet of space devoted to bench, clinical and translational research, with offices and meeting rooms for faculty and staff.

Activities

Numerous multicenter and multidisciplinary grants have funded state-of-the-art-respiratory research and provided a broad range of clinical and basic research opportunities for students, trainees, and junior faculty. Investigators’ innovative clinical, translational, and basic science collaborative studies have led to improved understanding of disease mechanisms and advances in diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Morris Institute investigators are consistently successful in securing extramural funding, which helps fuel the institute’s cutting-edge discoveries.