Translational Approaches for Pathogens of Human Significance

The overarching goal of this proposal is to establish a Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at Rhode Island Hospital’s (RIH) Center for International Health Research in partnership with key collaborators across Rhode Island. The proposed COBRE, Translational Approaches for Pathogens of Human Significance (“Pathogens”), employs interdisciplinary approaches to mitigate the significant morbidity and mortality caused by pathogens that are highly prevalent among human populations. The diseases initially targeted by this Phase I COBRE proposal (malaria, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, ebola) are highly prevalent and collectively cause 2 million deaths annually with roughly half occurring in children. These infections are further responsible for a significant burden of disease that is driven by the morbidity they cause among infected individuals. The Pathogens COBRE will support and fortify the careers of outstanding Research Project Leaders (RPLs) who will dedicate their careers to reduce the burden of disease due to these pathogens while establishing a Center of excellence in this crucial area of research. The scientific and mentoring hub for the Pathogens COBRE will be the Center for International Health Research (CIHR) at Rhode Island Hospital (RIH). CIHR was established by RIH in 2005 with two faculty members and has grown to include ten full time and many affiliated faculty. CIHR, and the proposed Pathogens COBRE, employ a “team science” approach to conduct cutting edge translational research, more efficiently propelling application to human populations. This approach engenders and emphasizes fluency across scientific disciplines spanning the continuum from molecular biology to population science. With the growing scale and complexity of scientific research, this approach is crucial to the ultimate success of our RPLs who will learn within our highly successful model. The long-term goal of the Pathogens COBRE is to develop, sustain, and recruit a critical mass of investigators and establish key Cores with a focus on some of the most significant pathogens impacting human health. The objectives of this Phase I proposal are to establish and build a Center with an experienced team of mentors and outstanding initial RPLs in support of their transition to research independence while also expanding and consolidating the pool of investigators studying pathogens at RIH and the broader RI scientific community. The successful establishment of the Pathogens COBRE will support the transition of four outstanding RPLs to research independence and build and sustain the Pathogens Center, which will apply transdisciplinary approaches to accelerate the delivery of therapeutics for some of humanity’s most deadly pathogens.