This is an application for the D43 Chronic, Non-Communicable Diseases and Disorders Across the Lifespan: Fogarty International Research Training Award. Drs. Bruce Kirenga, Moses Kamya and William Checkley have over 50 years combined experience mentoring investigators in non-communicable disease (NCD)-related research in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and will serve as Multiple Prinicipal Investigators in this training program. The proposed grant aims to develop a joint training program between Makerere College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to 1) build capacity among Ugandan investigators to conduct basic, clinical, epidemiologic and implementation science related to NCDs and 2) to support faculty at MakCHS to initiate, lead an manage NCD research projects through mentored fellowship training. The training program will consist of PhD, masters, and non-degree fellowships as well as short courses in bio-ethics, NCD epidemiology, quantitative and qualitative research methodology, good laboratory practice, implementation science, grants and manuscripts writing. The proposed training program will build on an established training partnership between MakCHS and JHU and will leverage an existing Fogarty training D43. The proposed NCD areas of focus will include: 1) hypertension (HTN), 2) cardiovascular disease (CVD), 3) chronic kidney disease (CKD), and 4) chronic respiratory diseases (CRD). The principal investigators have compiled an international panel of experts to serve on the training advisory panel as well as experts at JHU to serve as co-mentors for Ugandan trainees including: Dr. Robert Wise (CRD), Dr. Lawrence Appel (CVD, HTN), Dr. Nisa Marathur (CVD, DM), Dr. Kunihiro Matushita (CKD) and Dr. Chirag Parikh (CKD).
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent a growing burden of morbidity and mortality, Low-income countries (LIC) like Uganda have limited capacity to address the burgeoning epidemic. Research training in LICs provides an avenue to build capacity for locally generated investigations aimed at preventing and controlling NCDs. Leveraging on existing infrastructure at Makerere University College of Sciences and international collaboration with Johns Hopkins University through a Multiple Principal Investigator application, we propose a plan for a comprehensive multi-disciplinary research-training program for NCDs in Uganda.
