Our HIV/AIDS related research experiences from Zambia indicates that there is a strong need to develop a cadre of biomedical scientists well trained as specialists in prevention of HIV transmission and in AIDS oncology. This has become increasingly apparent with the rapid rise of patients afflicted with AIDS associated malignancies (Kaposi's sarcoma, lymphomas, and cervical carcinoma) and a dearth knowledge on the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of these rapidly rampaging diseases. The proposed training program will train a group of specialists who will be capable to apply molecular techniques and novel medical science approaches to prevent that transmission, to diagnose, and to treat the HIV and AIDS related diseases. The overall goal is to train a cadre of Zambian health care professionals in the areas of HIV and AIDS associated diseases including malignancies in order to address local and global health needs for effective diseases prevention strategies. To accomplish this we will: (l) Provide research training at the University of Nebraska and its collaborating US institutions to Zambian biomedical and clinical scientists to increase their expertise and capability to perform high quality, ethically sound, and scientifically valid research and disease prevention activities on HIV and AIDS associated malignancies, whether it is biomedical, behavioral, or preventative in nature; (2) Identify research priorities pertaining to the transmission and pathogenesis of HIV and AIDS related diseases, through the ongoing collaborative research between the US investigators and Zambian institutions. Training schedule will include: the long-term US-based, advanced graduate training, post-doctoral training in the US, advanced in-country training, short-term skill upgrade training in the US, and in-country short courses and workshops on focused research methodologies. Support and guidance will be offered for the development and conduct of meritorious pilot projects in the trainees' home country. The training curriculum will include instructions in modem laboratory techniques, and epidemiological, behavioral, biomedical, and analytic methods. This proposed initiative will be executed within the context of existing research projects and long-standing research collaborations between the US institutions and the University of Zambia, and the University Teaching Hospital in Zambia. The mutual beneficial and continuing interaction between the clinical and the basic investigators from the collaborating institutions is one of the reasons for the success of our ongoing research on AIDS associated malignancies in Zambia.
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