Training the next generation of tropical disease researchers

The Striepen lab is one of UGA's outstanding research teams, conducting the painstaking, laborious, long-term research that can turn the tide against some of the worst communicable scourages known to man. An important aspect of Dr. Striepen's work is taching graduate and postdoctoral students the methods and culture of a successful researvh enterprise. Those efforts have been rewarded with a $1.25 million NIH grant announced today, to support training researchers over the next five years:

"The University of Georgia is uniquely positioned as a training ground for the next generation of parasitology and tropical diseases researchers," said Silvia Moreno, a professor of cellular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and co-director of the center's T32 trainee program.

The internationally recognized research center brings together the largest number of laboratories in the U.S. that collectively conduct research on the full gamut of parasite diseases. These diseases are highly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia. Often they are the consequence and cause of poverty. They also are increasingly emerging or re-emerging in the U.S. and other industrialized nations.

The CTEGD training program is currently in its 10th year. Past trainees have gone on to successful careers as staff scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as faculty, postdoctoral scholars or medical and veterinary scientists at leading universities and research institutes.

"This program is very attractive to students," said Boris Striepen, Distinguished Research Professor of Cellular Biology in the Franklin College and co-director of the training grant. "We have had many more strong candidates than training slots."

Extraordinary work and a pipeline of opportunity for some of the brightest young researchers in the world. It is important for students to learn from the best, and this training is one of the most impressive proof points of UGA's role as a major research university.

Image: Past T32 participant Charles Rosenberg, who was a doctoral candidate at the time, collects data for a study at the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases. (Credit: Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)