This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the establishes a program of graduate education and research in Ecology, Conservation, and Pathogen Biology involving collaboration across six academic departments and three institutes and campuses of the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH Manoa). The purpose of this program is to provide doctoral students with interdisciplinary training in the skills required for conducting research at the interface of the biomedical and ecological sciences. The over-arching research theme is to improve the understanding of emerging infectious diseases, how they originate and spread, their impact on humans, domesticated animals, and on natural ecosystems and their biodiversity. The program builds on the unique collection of scientists, research projects and academic programs that exist at UH Manoa. Training will commence with students immersion in a unique 15-week intensive lab and field research experience that takes advantage of Hawaiis tropical forest and coral ecosystems as the outdoor classroom and laboratory. Students will conduct research using state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for carrying out research on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of host-pathogen relationships, the molecular and cellular processes involved in pathogenesis, and the role of anthropogenic environmental change in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Each student will have two mentors for his/her doctoral career during the program, an evolutionary ecological scientist and a biomedical scientist or parasitologist. In addition to their research experiences, students will receive continuing training including biannual workshops, a group project to build interdisciplinary collaborative research skills, and an annual international symposium which the students help organize and run in addition to particiipating. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Our planet faces the threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and the simultaneous loss of our biological heritage or biodiversity. The University of Hawaii’s National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship in Ecology, Conservation and Pathogen biology program trained a new cadre of scientists to address these threats by becoming experts in applied research spanning the scientific fields of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases to terrestrial and marine biodiversity conservation. Our program served almost 30 graduate students, over 50% women and 25% from under-represented groups including Pacific Islanders. Training addressed real-world problems, involved international collaboration as key to learning, and emphasized investigative tools that transcend disciplinary boundaries. Many of our IGERT trainees investigated emerging infectious diseases in SE Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas. For example, they applied innovative approaches to understanding the resurgence of so-called ‘break-bone fever’ caused by dengue virus. Students measured evolutionary change in the virus and showed an associated change in epidemic activity. Others charted changes in the ecology of mosquito species that make this pathogen particularly difficult to eradicate. One student conducted novel molecular analyses to understand and ameliorate the burden of the environmentally acquired microbial disease melioidosis in SE Asia. Closer to home in Hawaii, one of our fellows showed that rainfall affects the number of rodents and other hosts carrying the Leptospirosis pathogen that humans can accidently acquire from contaminated soil and water. One of our conservation biology trainees studied the potential for native birds to adapt to avian malaria in lowland areas where native birds have been all but eliminated by this alien disease. Another emphasis of our program was in marine conservation and health. Students showed how microbial biofilms that are highly sensitive to sediments in runoff are also critical for coral settlement. Others characterized ecological as well as physiological responses of coral reefs to other stressors utilizing novel biomarkers. By reconstructing historical ecology, one of our trainees revealed a surprising history of Hawaiian reef impacts and recovery. Studying conservation genetics of the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal, another fellow found that this endangered species suffered a severe drop in population size and currently has very low levels of genetic variation. Our program emphasized that students take intellectual risks, seek approaches to problems that transcend disciplines, and involve the affected stakeholders in their solution. Perhaps the best example of this was a project led by a Pacific Islander student who collected traditional ecological knowledge from Hawaiian elders or k?puna and melded this cultural history with science to promote community involvement and sound management of marine resources on the Big Island of Hawaii. All of these marine conservation and health studies led to an increased understanding of the vulnerability of coral reefs and their inhabitants to a myriad of disturbances caused by humans. Our IGERT trainees organized and participated in a variety of international meetings helping forge partnerships and collaborations across the Pacific Rim that provided exceptional added value in terms of participatory research with local communities and leading scientists in their fields. For example, our trainees organized and participated in a variety of symposia focused on emerging infectious diseases of humans including "EcoHealth in Coupled Human-Natural Systems" (Honolulu), "Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases" (Bangkok) and the "First Community of Practice Workshop for Eco-Bio-Social Research in Asia" (Bangkok). Notably through these experiences our pathogen biology team forged collaborations in Thailand and Singapore that supported a variety of student projects and a high-impact group study showing how areas with greater diversity of mosquitoes harbored fewer of the invasive mosquitoes that typically carry dengue virus and other human pathogens. Our students also organized and ran the international meeting "Linking Human Well-Being and Coral Reef Ecosystem Health in the Pacific Islands" (Honolulu). This meeting led to a productive international collaboration with some of the world's leading coral reef scientists to study the relationships between coral reef decline and human health and well-being. Our IGERT led investigation found that reef health and human health (measured as the balance of infectious versus chronic diseases) were both related to the economic status and independence of Pacific island countries and territories. In summary, our training program strived to break down barriers of traditional ways of thinking to generate innovative solutions to the coupled problems of declining human and environmental health faced by our planet today. We sent forth a new generation of scholars who continue to impact their world in many important ways, by thinking and working "outside the box," and leading peers, policy makers and communities to do the same.
