In this new application to the Fogarty Institute we are seeking support to facilitate the initiation of PhD training in Biosciences and Public Health at Mozambique?s major national University, the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM). The program entitled ?Enhancing Advanced Biomedical Training in Mozambique? brings together a critical mass of Mozambique?s HIV research community who are appointed at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane?s Facultes of Medicine (UEM FoM) and Veterinary Sciences (FVS), the Instituto Nacional de Saude (INS) of the Ministry of Health and the Maputo Central Hospital in support of UEMs recently formulated PhD in Biosciences and Public Health. US partners in this endeavor include the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health (VIGH), both of which collaborate with UEM in the training of masters level students with the support of existing D43 training grants. Research training related to the pathogenesis, prevention and management of HIV-1 related co-morbidities including tuberculosis and hepatitis virus infections directly address major causes of morbidity within Mozambique. Mozambique, in addition, provides a unique opportunity to further explore important interactions among HIV-1 and tropical and neglected diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis by bringing together scientists conducting cutting edge laboratory research with these pathogens with clinical investigators with unique access and insights into these tropical diseases. The collaboration will also interface the substantial strengths in novel Point-of-Care diagnostic and remote biosensing technologies in UCSD?s School of Medicine and its Jacobs School of Engineering (JSOE) and with Ilesh Jani?s POC evaluation program at the INS. Informatics, biostatistics and quantitative biology training will provide critical rigor to both research projects and early career stage investigators in this program. VIGH will lead collaborative activities in the areas of Public Health and Operational Research building on its long relationship with Dr. Moshin Sidat, Dean of the UEM Faculty of Medicine in these areas. Collectively the faculty in Mozambique and the US seek to successfully launch UEM?s PhD in Biosciences and Public Health as the country develops for the first time the capacity to offer doctoral level training in these two disciplines within Mozambique.
In this D43 Fogarty Training Grant Application entitled ?Enhancing Advanced Biomedical Training in Mozambique? we seek to substantially strengthen institutional capacity within the Republic of Mozambique to provide advanced training in biosciences and public health by leveraging the critical mass of the Mozambican biomedical research community from the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, the Instituto Nacional de Saude (INS) of Mozambique?s Ministry of Health and the Maputo Central Hospital to form a training faculty capable of providing graduate level training to early career biomedical scientists within Mozambique. The research is focused on HIV co-infections, point-of-care technologies and public health research and seeks to reduce HIV-1 related morbidity and mortality in Mozambique and other LMICs. With 1.6 million of its 23 million citizens already infected, Mozambique is 5th in the number of cases and 8th in adult seroprevalence among the 220 nations of the world, and strengthening HIV-1 related biosciences and public health research capacity is among Mozambique?s highest biomedical and public health priorities.
