The COBRE for Translational Approaches to Pathogens of Human Significance will target treatments for highly prevalent diseases like malaria and TB.
The Center for International Health Research (CIHR) at Brown University Health has received
$12.1 million to establish a Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) focused on “Translational Approaches to Pathogens of Human Significance” from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Jennifer Friedman, MD, PhD, MPH, professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology, and Jonathan Kurtis, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine are principal investigators.
With this funding, the center will use interdisciplinary approaches to mitigate the significant morbidity and mortality caused by pathogens that are highly prevalent among human populations. The diseases initially targeted by the center—malaria, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, and ebola—collectively cause 2 million deaths annually with roughly half occurring in children. These infections are further responsible for a significant burden of disease that is driven by the morbidity they cause among infected individuals.
The Center for International Health Research was established by Rhode Island Hospital in 2005 with two faculty members and has grown to include 10 full time and many affiliated faculty. CIHR will be the scientific and mentoring hub, focused on developing research project leaders dedicated to studying these pathogens. Using a “team science” approach, the COBRE will conduct cutting-edge translational research, more efficiently propelling discoveries toward application to human populations. This approach engenders and emphasizes fluency across scientific disciplines spanning the continuum from molecular biology to population science.
“With the growing scale and complexity of scientific research, this approach is crucial to the ultimate success of our research project leaders, who will learn within a highly successful model,” Friedman says. “The long-term goal of the COBRE is to develop, sustain, and recruit a critical mass of investigators and establish key cores with a focus on some of the most significant pathogens impacting human health.”