Inflammation is the body's response to injury, infection or molecules perceived by the immune system as foreign. Clinically, inflammation is characterized by pain, redness, heat, swelling and altered function of affected tissue. Although the ability to mount an inflammatory response is essential for survival, the ability to control inflammation is also necessary for health. Absent, excessive or uncontrolled inflammation results in a vast array of diseases that includes the highly prevalent conditions of:

		Allergy, including allergic rhinitis/sinusitis, skin allergies (urticaria/hives, angioedema, atopic dermatitis), food allergies, drug allergies, insect allergies, and rare allergic disorders such as mastocytosis
		Asthma
		Arthritis, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and spondyloarthropathies
		Autoimmune conditions, including systemic lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, polymyositis, inflammatory neuropathies (Guillain Barré, inflammatory polyneuropathies), vasculitis (Wegener's granulomatosus, polyarteritis nodosa), and rare disorders such as polymyalgia rheumatica, temporal arteritis, Sjogren's syndrome, Bechet's disease, Churg-Strauss syndrome, and Takayasu's arteritis

While major programs within the Biology of Inflammation Center will initially focus on allergy, asthma, arthritis and autoimmune diseases, special expertise also exists in the areas of cardiovascular inflammation, gastrointestinal inflammation, infection and immunity, leukocyte biology and immunology, neuroinflammatory disorders and transplantation.