View CV | CHARLES E. McCALL, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, Microbiology, and
Immunology
Director, WFU Translational Science Institute
Deputy Associate Dean of Research Director
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Medical Center Boulevard
Winston Salem, NC 27157 - 1042 Phone: 336-716-2691
Fax: 336-716-1214 |
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As a Director of the new WFU Translational Sciences Institute (TSI), I promote its vision to transform the translational research and research education paradigm at this academic center. The TSI is an academic home for primary, cross-appointed, and associate faculty who conduct basic, patient oriented, epidemiologic and social sciences, and community based translational research. It is a home for graduate and undergraduate education programs in translational research. It provides resources for participant based research within the institution and in the local and regional communities. It supports and facilitates educational programs, mentorship, translational technologies (e.g. genomics, molecular imaging, proteomics, and animal models), bioinformatics, research design and biostatistics, ethics, and conduct of research. It facilitates the Infectious Diseases Fellowship program at the research level.
Research: I direct an NIH funded basic-translational research program that seeks to define the molecular events that accompany sepsis- or trauma-induced severe systemic inflammation (SSI) with multiorgan failure. Our most recent focus is on the Epigenetics of Severe Systemic Inflammation. We are testing that chromatin and transcription factor modifications during human SSI reprogram innate immunity genes, such as IL-1β, TNF α, and IkB α. We are linking these molecular nuclear processes to DNA methylation of promoter and enhancer regions. To accomplish our goals and test our hypotheses, we use both blood leukocytes obtained from patients with SSI and a cell model that mimics the SSI gene expression phenotype. The significance of this research is that it may lead to design of novel interventions for a highly destructive human disease.