TRAINING AND RESEARCH ON SEVERE MALARIAL ANEMIA

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is the competing continuation of our originally funded Fogarty International Center application (D43 TW05884) entitled, Training and Research in Severe Malarial Anemia, and the additional program we established with supplemental funding entitled, Expanding Research on Severe Malarial Anemia to Include Training and Research in the Areas of HIV/Malaria Co-Infections. In the renewal application, we propose to provide continued training for two Kenyan postdoctoral fellows, two doctoral candidates, and an undergraduate student who received training in the previously funded University of Pittsburgh International Malaria Training and Research Program (IMTRP) established in 2002. In addition, we will recruit and train an additional Kenyan doctoral candidate as part of the competing continuation. The program will also contain a re-entry grant so that Kenyan scientists can establish their independent research careers in Kenya. To accomplish our training goals, we will continue our collaboration with Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Kisumu, Kenya. An additional collaborative relationship will be formed with Maseno University (western Kenya), since this institution is located near our research training facilities in western Kenya and offers newly established academic programs that parallel our training goals. Global infectious disease training will focus on pediatric severe malarial anemia and HIV- 1, and trainees will receive in-depth instruction in genetics, molecular immunology, bioinformatics, and biostatistics. The research training will take place at our state-of-the-art facilities in western Kenya, a region with holoendemic Plasmodium falciparum transmission and the highest rates of pediatric HIV-1 in Kenya. In addition, we will provide short-term intensive training to 25-30 Kenyan postdoctoral fellows, doctoral and medical students, and masters' level trainees through annual workshops. The short-term training will take place at the KEMRI research facility in western Kenya and will be taught by scientific experts from the US and Kenya. Training will be provided in genetics, molecular immunology, hematology, epidemiology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, bioethics, and clinical management of pediatric malaria and HIV-1. The overall training paradigm we have designed in the competing continuation will ensure that all trainees in the University of Pittsburgh IMRTP receive the required technical and intellectual expertise to conduct independent research for the control and prevention of pediatric malaria and HIV-1. Continuation of our highly successful training program will also provide the essential technology transfer and capacity-building required for establishing a critical mass of Kenyan scientists to address the challenging public health problems associated with malaria and HIV-1 on a long-term basis.