This competing renewal application for a Global Infectious Disease Training Program aims to enhance tropical infectious disease research capacity in Peru by focusing on research disciplines and diseases relevant to the Amazon region of Peru. The leadership and faculty of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) and Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana (UNAP) have systematically delineated research priorities for this program in the next project period. This training program will continu to emphasize degree granting programs-MS and PhD) at UPCH and UNAP, and supplemented by diverse short- and medium-term training of postdoctoral scholars, students (undergraduate, post-baccalaureate), nurses, and technicians. The program explicitly understands that research capacity at UPCH and UNAP differs, and that UPCH has an important leadership opportunity to leverage its achievements to enhance UNAP's research success in Iquitos, Peru, while continuing to advance its institutional priorities in Lima. Sustainability is a key priority of this proposed renewal, with emphasis on grant and manuscript writing. Submission of new grant applications to newly available governmental funding opportunities in Peru is an important priority. The new project period proposes to emphasize recruitment on new trainees from underrepresented groups in Peru particularly in the Amazon region (via UNAP). With new and ongoing NIH-funded and Peruvian government-funded research projects focused on malaria and leptospirosis, this training program is designed to build upon past capacity building success to bring laboratory- and field-based research capacity in-country in Peru. The general scientific infrastructure and environment created by the current research projects will explicitly be leveraged to other diseases areas of articulated local priorit. Training in Peru (Lima, Iquitos/Amazon region) training will be the primary activities, supplemented by training of a small number of highly selected candidates for either short- or long-term training at the University in California (San Diego and Davis). Such training will be explicitly targeted at prioritized areas (i.e not available in Peru) by the UPCH and UNAP faculty-based Executive Committee. The new project period will include specific new areas of emphasis, including short-, medium- and long-term training in the following: medical entomology, laboratory animal science, pathogen genomics and bioinformatics, cell biology/microscopy techniques and innovative data management). A highly qualified faculty with international reputations has been assembled at UPCH in Lima and at the University of California (San Diego and Davis), supplemented by microbial bioinformatics from the J. Craig Venter Institute, which will be coordinated by the program leadership. Motivated scientists in the context of excellent research facilities at UNAP in Iquitos will leverage the UPCH and international faculty to advance research capacity building in Iquitos. Our goals are summarized as the advancement of two key institutions in Peru by developing the next generation of scientists for leadership in the international scientific community as well as in their home country.
This competing renewal application proposes international training and research capacity building in globally important infectious diseases focused at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, with important research capacity development focused at the Iquitos public university, Universidad de la Amazonia Peruana. Developing the research capacity to study tropical diseases in the endemic setting, leveraged by advanced capabilities in Lima and key field- and laboratory-based capacities in the underrepresented provinces, is a major international priority in global public health.
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