Despite the toll that infectious diseases take on humans in developing countries around the world, there remains a substantial shortage of both clinically and research-oriented people trained in tropical disease diagnosis, prevention, and control. Renewal of this proposed T35 training grant would enable Johns Hopkins University to continue providing U.S. medical students, candidates for graduate school and post-doctoral trainees opportunities in tropical disease research. Furthermore, funding will allow us to continue taking advantage of the substantial overseas site research-training infrastructure built over the last 20 years in Peru. We have successfully used this system to train over 205 students -171 both on an ad hoc basis and with the assistance of other grants, and 34 under the resources of this training grant. We propose to expand our program to train 30 additional students for periods of 6 months or longer. This research would continue to be performed as an independent study project and is an ideal mechanism for recruiting outstanding students into combined clinical and laboratory based research in tropical infectious diseases that can be translated to the field setting. Similar to the tutor system used in Britain, our students are each paired with an experienced investigator for the duration of their stay. Students consult with tutors frequently through all steps of the investigative process. After a 4 to 6 week lab rotation, students formulate their individual research questions. Students carry out complete scientific investigations from the initial and ongoing ethical considerations, to finally, the data analysis. After analyzing the findings of their project, or if time constraints dictate, data from another project, each student will write and submit a paper for publication.
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