The Specialized Center for Clinically Oriented Reasearch (SCCOR) program consists of four projects relating to chronic lung disease and a training program. Additionally, the SCCOR contains an administrative core and two cores that do scientific support for the projects.

The overall goal of the SCCOR program is to elucidate the roles of innate and adaptive immunity in the pathogenesis of chronic lung disease. The SCCOR program consists of four interrelated research projects that are focused on two chronic lung diseases: asthma and bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) with a common underlying theme of epithelial injury, inflammation, repair and fibroproliferation. The central hypothesis to be tested is that chronic lung disease occurs as a consequence of destructive or maladaptive host responses to common environmental insults that challenge the lung. The fundamental roles of innate and adaptive host responses are to recognize invading antigens, pathogens, or altered self components with the purpose of eradicating the offending agents and restoring tissue integrity. While resolution can occur when the host response is normal, an exogenous insult cannot be contained when a critical host factor is inactivated, deregulated, or becomes dysfunctional. Such maladaptive host responses lead to chronic lung disease.

The four project leaders will be interacting and attending regular scientific meetings to discuss findings and progress. Additionally, there is a training element to the SCCOR program, which will train the future leaders in clinical chronic lung disease research.