The overall purpose of the Administrative Core is to consolidate and centralize all of the necessary resources to ensure the success of the COBRE Center on Host-pathogen Interactions. This core will support investigators focused on determining the mechanisms underlying immune modulations in the host upon various infections and to identify possible treatments for these devastating illnesses. In the context of the current tight funding environment, success depends on many factors including excellent mentorship, access to adequate research space, modern equipment, and current technology, freedom from administrative burdens, along with facilitated collaboration within this vibrant community of researchers with a common interest in studying the host-pathogen interactions in various infectious disease models. Thus, we view a concerted human effort as being essential to build our research enterprise. Accordingly, the Administrative Core will support many essential aspects of our group's activities including (1) implementing a comprehensive, but individualized mentoring program; (2) providing structured opportunities to establish and facilitate productive scientific interactions within the group; (3) raising the national profile of the group and establishing 2 new core facilties; (4) training investigators in how best to take advantage of the advanced technologies available to them; (5) supporting our visiting speaker seminar series; (6) supporting specific infectious disease-related School of Medicine and Health Sciences library acquisitions; (7) organizing our annual symposium/workshop; (8) fostering collaborations through annual meetings between the other North Dakota COBRE and INBRE grant supported groups and between individuals in the respective groups; and (9) supporting mentorship programs for which members of our Internal Advisory and Mentoring Committee and our External Advisory Board play active roles. As part of our mentorship program we will have monthly meetings focusing on science, scientific collaborations, faculty-orientated survival skills, grant writing, and obtaining funding to build individual and group success. We are confident that our junior faculty will, as a result of such committed interactions, build this research group to one of increased international prominence.
Among the many challenges to health, infectious diseases stand out for their ability to have a profound impact on humans. In the US, infectious disease is the third leading cause of death, accounting for 25% of all visits to physicians and hospitals, with costs over $120 billion annually. Additionally, many drugs that were previously touted as saviours from infectious diseases are no longer effective, and the incidence of infectious diseases has been rising. The research performed by these investigators can lead to new breakthroughs in the field, explicitly in understanding and controlling infectious diseases that will have far-reaching effects. However, successes in controlling these diseases cannot come from isolated scientific triumphs by individual researchers. Rather, broad approaches by a collective group, such as ours, using complementary aspects of research (e.g., the study of different pathogens and the use of different techniques), are necessary to find ways to combat these infectious diseases. The objectives of this administrative core will (1) support the mentoring plan for all the young investigators involved in the project; (2) foster interactions and collaborations between the host-pathogen group, School, UND, and with the wider scientific community; and (3) support a visiting speaker program, library acquisitions, and an annual symposium/workshop to ensure success of these junior investigators.
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