College Profile 2023

Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence

The National Institutes of Health’s Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) program supports the establishment of innovative, state-of-the-art biomedical and behavioral research centers across the country. COBRE programs may receive three, five-year grants to develop a critical mass of investigators and to improve research infrastructure. The College of Science leads two COBRE-funded centers.

Center for Human Genetics

Scientists at the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics are working to unravel the secrets of human illness by advancing our under standing of the fundamental principles by which genetic and environmental factors determine and predict both healthy traits and susceptibility to disease. The CHG addresses research and clinical opportunities in human diagnostics and epigenetic therapeutics, advancing personalized medicine for intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, cancer, diabetes, heart dis ease, and disorders of the immune and nervous systems. The center is housed in Self Regional Hall, a 17,000-square-foot building that opened in 2017 on the campus of the Greenwood Genet ic Center, which has a long history of excellence in the field of medical genetics and caring for families impacted by genetic diseases and birth defects. CHG was founded in 2018 and received a $10.6 million COBRE grant in 2021.

Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center

Eukaryotic pathogens cause some of the most devastating and intractable diseases in humans, including malaria, amoebic dysentery, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and fungal meningitis. Many eukaryotic pathogens are classified as bio terrorism agents or neglected tropical diseases. While many of the diseases are often thought of as “third-world” diseases, climate change and ease of international travel has increased such infections in the U.S. The Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center, or EPIC, is an interdisciplinary research cooperative that includes scientists from multiple Clemson departments and Col leges, is housed on campus in the Life Sciences Facility. EPIC was founded in 2013 and received a COBRE grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2016.

6 CLEMSON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SCIENCE | 2023 COLLEGE PROFILE