Molecular Diagnostic Tools for Patient Oriented Field Studies in Infectious Diseases

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I am a Clinician Investigator in the Division of Infectious Diseases at University of Virginia and am submitting this one-time K24 renewal application to further extend my molecular diagnostics research into patient oriented research (POR) and to provide protected time to mentor both my direct and institutional trainees. In the 15 years since completion of ID fellowship I have developed a research program in several domains of tropical infectious diseases, now largely focused on the development of molecular diagnostic tools for research. Aim 1: In the first term of this grant I established the University of Virginia School of Medicine K-award mentoring program, which entails a series of Symposia and meetings geared towards both those applying for and those who have already received NIH K or similar awards. This K24 grant will allow me to continue and extend this important program further. This grant will also allow protected time to directly mentor my trainees in POR, which currently consists of 3 K23 recipients and 1 Infectious Disease fellow, working in areas spanning MDR TB, pediatric TB, childhood diarrhea, and antimicrobial resistance, each with a diagnostic emphasis. Aim 2: I will also extend my personal research program into POR. Currently funded work includes the use of molecular diagnostics for both case- and population-level etiologic diagnosis of diarrhea and molecular diagnosis of MDR Tuberculosis. The most mature work involves diarrheal etiology, and our latest data strongly supports entering into clinical trials for Enterotoxigenic E. coli vaccines and new Cryptosporidium therapeutics. This K24 will allow me protected time to insert these molecular diagnostics into these trials as primary or secondary outcomes and gain needed skills in clinical trial design and data analysis. Finally, consonant with the K24 mechanism, I will expand my research new areas such as molecular diagnostics for antimicrobial resistance.