Immune Disease Institute to affiliate with Children's

A research program investigating immune and inflammatory diseases will work more closely with a hospital in a new collaboration announced this week.

The Immune Disease Institute, formerly called the Center for Blood Research, will become affiliated with Children's Hospital Boston under an agreement to be completed this year, the hospital said in a statement yesterday. The institute will then be called the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

An affiliate of Harvard Medical School, the nonprofit research institute employs about 200 people in three locations in the Longwood Medical Area. Its 19 principal investigators include institute scientific director Frederick Alt, who studies developmental immunology, cancer, and aging, and Dr. Judy Lieberman, whose research focuses on viruses, cancer, and RNA interference.

Children's Hospital's funding power will help the institute, the hospital said. The institute attracts about $38 million in annual research support; Children's receives about $225 million a year.