Doctoral Training Program in Tropical Diseases

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案是一项新的热带传染病博士前培训计划，要求资助五名学员，为期五年。该项目的首席研究员是Dyann Wirth教授，该项目将在哈佛大学公共卫生学院免疫学和传染病系进行。哈佛大学公共卫生学院最近通过创建一个名为免疫学和传染病（IID）的新部门，对传染病研究做出了新的和扩大的承诺。该司的成立是基于认识到传染病在全球总体疾病负担中的重要性，它对生活在世界热带地区发展中国家的人民造成了不成比例的影响。据世界卫生组织称，1999年世界上超过三分之一的死亡是由传染病造成的，随着艾滋病毒/艾滋病在许多人口众多的发展中国家的蔓延，这一比例可能会增加。因此，越来越需要对传染病进行研究和培训，而这一培训方案满足了这一需要，重点是发展中国家的传染病，包括疟疾、艾滋病毒和结核病。拟议的培训方案为热带传染病方面的博士生提供培训，包括免疫学、分子生物学、细胞生物学、生物统计学、生物化学、遗传学和基因组学等核心知识领域的培训。此外，学生们还将接受高级培训，重点是特定传染因子和现代方法在这些重要疾病的疫苗和药物开发中的应用。免疫学和传染病学系正在进行的许多基础研究涉及分子发病机制的重要领域，检查宿主-病原体和病原体-媒介界面。本课程的学员将接触到在分子和细胞水平上考虑宿主-病原体关系的综合方法，结合生物化学和基因组学，以产生更广泛的疾病发病机制和干预策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is a new training initiative for pre-doctoral training in Tropical Infectious Diseases and requests funding for five trainees for five years. The Principal Investigator of the program is Professor Dyann Wirth and the program will be in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health. The Harvard School of Public Health has recently made a new and expanded commitment to infectious diseases research through the creation of a new department called Immunology and Infectious Diseases (IID). The formation of this department was based on the recognition of the importance of infectious diseases in the overall global burden of disease, disproportionately affecting peoples living in developing countries in the tropical regions of the world. According to the World Health Organization, over one third of the deaths in the world in 1999 were due to infectious diseases and this proportion is likely to increase with spreading HIV/AIDS in many populous developing countries. Thus, there is an increasing need for research and training in infectious diseases and this training program addresses this need with an emphasis on developing country infectious diseases, including malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. The proposed training program provides for training of predoctoral students in tropical infectious diseases, including training in core knowledge areas of immunology, molecular biology, cell biology, biostatistics, biochemistry, genetics and genomics. Students, in addition, will receive advanced training focusing on specific infectious agents and the applications of modern approaches to vaccine and drug development for these important diseases. Much of the ongoing basic research in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases addresses important areas of molecular pathogenesis, examining both host-pathogen and pathogen-vector interfaces. Trainees in this program will be exposed to integrated approaches that consider the host-pathogen relationship at the molecular and cellular levels, incorporating biochemistry and genomics, to generate a more broad perspective on disease pathogenesis and strategies for intervention.