Immunology represents a central science for the pediatric researcher because many of the most common and chronic diseases of childhood involve a component of immune system dysfunction. Incorporating physicians who treat diseases as varied as allergy and asthma, cancer and graft rejection, HIV/AIDS, inflammatory bowel disease, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, primary immune deficiency and diseases of innate immunity, with scientific experts in the immune effectors (T and B lymphocytes, cytokines, chemokines) and the immune controllers (regulatory T cells, dendritic cells), this Research Affinity Group is poised to advance studies that will be rapidly applied to the development of novel therapeutics in three key program areas: cancer immunology and vaccines, infectious disease immunology and vaccines, and autoimmune disease and immune-modulating therapies. Center Leader: Terri H. Finkel, M.D., Ph.D.; Co-Leaders: Steve Douglas, M.D. and Paul Offit, M.D.