Fogarty supports new infectious disease research training grants

September / October 2013 | Volume 12, Issue 5

Fogarty has awarded six new grants totaling $5.6 million to support new and ongoing infectious disease research training in five low- and middle-income countries. Funding from Fogarty's Global Infectious Disease Research Training program will enhance the efforts of grantees to build human capacity and conduct research on diseases that are endemic in their home countries. The five-year awards will fund new and ongoing projects in Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Kenya and Pakistan.

"Malaria, tuberculosis, rotavirus and other dangerous pathogens still pose a serious threat to populations in developing countries, particularly to their poorest citizens," said Fogarty Director Dr. Roger I. Glass. "This funding will help clinicians and health workers combat these diseases, while building a critical mass of researchers and support staff at grantee institutions."

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will use its award to establish a new research training center in China focused on a wide range of sexually transmitted diseases. Emory University's grant will help launch a training initiative designed to improve the research, treatment and control of tuberculosis in Ethiopia, where the disease is considered a public health emergency.

A grant going to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center will renew support for ongoing training in Kenya that addresses severe anemia caused by malaria. An existing project that is administered by Johns Hopkins University and targets infectious diseases affecting mothers and children in Bangladesh will also receive a renewal award. Grantees from Yale University carrying out biomedical research training in Kenya on human African trypanosomiasis - also known as sleeping sickness - will receive a renewal award as well. Finally, funding will continue for training related to childhood diseases such as polio, rotavirus, pneumonia and measles through a renewal grant to Aga Khan University in Pakistan.

The awards are partly supported by NIH funding partner, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Fogarty Global Infectious Disease Research Training Awards

• Infectious Diseases and Child Health in Pakistan Research Training Program
  Aga Khan University, Pakistan
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Anita Zaidi and Dr. Walter Orenstein

• Ethiopia-Emory TB Research Training Program
  Emory University
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Henry Blumberg

• Research Training on Childhood Infectious Diseases in Bangladesh
  Johns Hopkins University
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Robert Black and Dr. Abdullah Hel Baqui

• Training and Research on Severe Malarial Anemia
  University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Douglas Perkins

• UNC-South China STD Research Training Center
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Joseph Tucker and Dr. Myron Cohen

• Tsetse-Transmitted African Trypanosomiasis
  Yale University
  Principal Investigator: Dr. Serap Aksoy

More Information

• Learn more about Fogarty's Global Infectious Disease Research Training program.
• View a full list of Global Infectious Disease awards by institution.

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