NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, BETHESDA, MARYLAND - The Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a total of $15 million to fund six new awards, three competing renewal awards, and 32 competing supplements to U.S. universities under the fourth funding cycle of the FIC AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP). As the international training arm of NIH’s HIV research effort, AITRP trains developing country scientists to address the AIDS epidemic primarily through prevention research, combining biomedical and behavioral interventions.
AITRP supports U.S. grantees and their colleagues in Africa, Latin America, the Far East, Russia, and the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union to build global HIV/AIDS research capacity and to help prevent HIV transmission. The program funds research and training programs for health scientists, clinicians, and allied health workers in parts of the developing world and newly emerging democracies severely impacted by the AIDS epidemic.
"We must prepare current and future generations of international scientists to work interdependently to meet global health needs," says FIC Director Gerald T. Keusch, M.D. "FIC’s AITRP is part of the NIH major effort to do so. First funded in 1988, AITRP is now the most extensive HIV research and training network among U.S. schools of medicine and public health and counterparts in developing nations."
Key areas of emphasis to date include intervention research designed to prevent HIV transmission among adults, as well as from mothers to children, and preparation for the testing of HIV vaccines.
AITRP facilitates and provides training in support of broad NIH international HIV efforts. New efforts, for example, include AITRP links to the Vaccine Trials Network funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); the Prevention Trials Network funded by NIAID in collaboration with other NIH institutes and centers; and behavioral interventions based on popular opinion leaders, a community-level prevention program funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
AITRP grants are funded jointly by FIC and six other NIH institutes – the National Cancer Institute, for training and research in AIDS-related malignancies; the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; the National Institute on Drug Abuse; NIMH; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, for development of a special initiative on blood safety; and the National Institute of Nursing Research.
The following were successful applicants for new awards and competing renewals:
*Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Program Director, Dr. Vinayaka
Prasad). Collaborating countries: India, Eritrea;
*Baylor College of Medicine (Program Director, Dr. Mark Kline).
Collaborating countries: Romania, Mexico, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia,
South Africa, Swaziland;
*Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Program Director, Dr. Alejandra
Gurtman). Collaborating country: Argentina;
*New York University (Program Director, Dr. Susan Zolla-Pazner).
Collaborating countries: India, Cameroon;
*University of Illinois at Chicago (Program Director, Dr. Judith Levy).
Collaborating countries: Indonesia, Chile, Malawi;
*University of Nebraska – Lincoln (Program Director, Dr. Charles Wood).
Collaborating country: Zambia;
**Brown University (Program Director, Dr. Kenneth Mayer).
Collaborating countries: Philippines, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh,
Cambodia;
**Columbia University (Program Director, Dr. Salim Abdool Karim).
Collaborating country: South Africa;
**State University of New York, Brooklyn (Program Director, Dr. Jack
DeHovitz). Collaborating countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Georgia,
Poland, Russia
(new awards indicated by *; recompeting awards indicated by **)
FIC is the international component of the NIH. It promotes and supports scientific discovery internationally and mobilizes resources to reduce disparities in global health. NIH is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Press releases, fact sheets, and other FIC-related materials are available at: http://www.nih.gov/fic