This is the resubmission of a NRSA competing renewal application for Years 12-17 of a training program designed to produce investigators at the cutting edge of research in infectious diseases and immunity. Trainees will be at the postdoctoral level and a mixture of MDs and PhDs each supported for 2 years for a total request of 3 stipends/yr. to accomplish this goal. At this time, ours is the sole NRSA existing within BCM or the Texas Medical Center that supports clinical research training in non-AIDS infections and global health. Superb training opportunities exist at BCM in a number of areas. Participating projects directed by 23 mentors (8 MDs, 4 MD/PhDs and 11 PhDs) with strong records of federal funding and training experience include: 1) Cellular and Structural Biology of Innate Immunity, 2) Novel Drug-, Cell- and Probiotic-based Therapeutics, 3) Viral and Bacterial Gastroenteritis, 4) Viral and Bacterial Oncogenesis, 5) Vaccine Development and Evaluation, 6) High- resolution Structures of Viruses and Cellular Nanomachines, 7) Functional Genomics of Pathogens, and 8) Device-related Infections. Total grant support in FY2014 for the projects participating in this NRSA Program is approximately $33M. The structure of the Program for Research Training in Infections and Immunity contains three training tracks that can be pursued by trainees: 1) laboratory-based clinical research, 2) clinical trials and epidemiology research and 3) global health research. The Program Director, David J. Tweardy MD, maintains ultimate authority for the program and manages day-to-day operations. He is assisted by two other member of the Executive Committee, Associate Program Director, Mary Estes PhD, and Peter Hotez MD PhD, Dean of the National School for Tropical Medicine. Selection of trainees is performed by the Selection Committee, which includes the Executive Committee and three other program faculty. The training program for MD fellows includes research rotations to facilitate selection of a mentor. Both MD and PhD trainees have individual research committees, must prepare a written research proposal to be defended to the research committee, and have yearly reviews that include academic and career assessment. Both MD and PhD fellows are required to attend a monthly research-in-progress seminar series, a weekly journal club, and a yearly scientific social. All trainees must present at these meetings. The Adult and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Training Programs at BCM and other Departments participating in this NRSA have shown they can attract highly qualified, training- grant eligible postdoctoral trainee candidates including nearly two under-represented minority candidates per year. Twelve trainees have completed training supported by this Award, thus far. As a group, they have published a total of 118 peer-reviewed manuscripts resulting from their postdoctoral fellowship training (9.8 manuscripts per graduate; 59% first-authored by the graduate). In addition, these graduates have been awarded a total of $4.9M in external funding from the NIH and other competitive sources. All but one graduate continues to pursue an academic or industry-based infectious diseases career.

Public Health Relevance

The persistent threat to health posed by new emerging infectious diseases and old re-emerging infectious diseases mandates that the United States continue to train a diverse and sophisticated cadre of biomedical investigators with the research and clinical skills necessary to develop and implement new strategies to diagnose, prevent and treat them. This NRSA now in its 11th year has successfully accomplished these training objectives and holds great promise to continue along this vital path.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32AI055413-15
Application #
9474568
Study Section
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases B Subcommittee (MID)
Program Officer
Robbins, Christiane M
Project Start
2003-08-01
Project End
2019-05-31
Budget Start
2018-06-08
Budget End
2019-05-31
Support Year
15
Fiscal Year
2018
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Baylor College of Medicine
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
051113330
City
Houston
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
77030
Weatherhead, Jill E; Porter, Paul; Coffey, Amy et al. (2018) Ascaris Larval Infection and Lung Invasion Directly Induce Severe Allergic Airway Disease in Mice. Infect Immun 86:
Rajan, Anubama; Vela, Lucy; Zeng, Xi-Lei et al. (2018) Novel Segment- and Host-Specific Patterns of Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Adherence to Human Intestinal Enteroids. MBio 9:
Poole, Nina M; Rajan, Anubama; Maresso, Anthony W (2018) Human Intestinal Enteroids for the Study of Bacterial Adherence, Invasion, and Translocation. Curr Protoc Microbiol 50:e55
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Cortes-Penfield, Nicolas W; Ramani, Sasirekha; Estes, Mary K et al. (2017) Prospects and Challenges in the Development of a Norovirus Vaccine. Clin Ther 39:1537-1549
Weatherhead, Jill E; Hotez, Peter J; Mejia, Rojelio (2017) The Global State of Helminth Control and Elimination in Children. Pediatr Clin North Am 64:867-877
Weatherhead, Jill; Cortés, Andrea Arévalo; Sandoval, Carlos et al. (2017) Comparison of Cytokine Responses in Ecuadorian Children Infected with Giardia, Ascaris, or Both Parasites. Am J Trop Med Hyg 96:1394-1399
Cortes-Penfield, Nicolas W; Trautner, Barbara W; Jump, Robin L P (2017) Urinary Tract Infection and Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in Older Adults. Infect Dis Clin North Am 31:673-688
McKenna, Megan L; McAtee, Shannon; Bryan, Patricia E et al. (2017) Human Intestinal Parasite Burden and Poor Sanitation in Rural Alabama. Am J Trop Med Hyg 97:1623-1628
Poole, Nina M; Green, Sabrina I; Rajan, Anubama et al. (2017) Role for FimH in Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli Invasion and Translocation through the Intestinal Epithelium. Infect Immun 85:

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