NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), part of the National Institutes of Health, announced approximately US$14 million in first-year funding to establish 10 International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMRs). NIAID said the seven-year awards will establish the Centers in regions where malaria is endemic, including parts of Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and Latin America. Teams of scientists involved in the ICEMR program will be conducting research in more than 20 countries. Lee Hall, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Parasitology and International Programs Branch in NIAID, commented that sustainable and effective malaria control requires research in multiple settings on the complex interactions among the parasite, the mosquito vector, the local ecology and the human host. Dr. Hall added that “The ICEMR program seeks to address this need by creating a network of multidisciplinary research centers in malaria-endemic settings. The centers aim to generate critical knowledge, tools and evidence-based strategies to support intervention and control programs by government organizations and health care institutions.” Each center will:
– Design and conduct multidisciplinary research on the epidemiology, transmission and pathogenesis of malaria in endemic geographic regions;
– Design and conduct special projects to capitalize on new opportunities and emerging public health needs; and
– Develop and conduct training and career development programs for researchers from malaria-endemic areas.
The principal investigators selected to establish the ICEMRs are as follows:
– Malaria Transmission and the Impact of Control Efforts in Southern Africa
Principal Investigator: Peter Agre, M.D.
Lead Institution: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
– Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in India
Principal Investigator: Jane Carlton, Ph. D.
Lead Institution: New York University School of Medicine, New York City
– Southeast Asia Malaria Research Center
Principal Investigator: Liwang Cui, Ph.D.
Lead Institution: Pennsylvania State University, University Park
– Program for Resistance, Immunology, Surveillance & Modeling of Malaria in Uganda
Principal Investigator: Matthew Dorsey, M.D.
Lead Institution: University of California, San Francisco
– Latin American Center for Malaria Research and Control
Principal Investigator: Socrates Herrera-Valencia, M.D.
Lead Institution: Caucaseo Scientific Research Center, Cali, Colombia
– Research to Control and Eliminate Malaria in SE Asia and SW Pacific
Principal Investigator: James Kazura, M.D.
Lead Institution: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
– Population-based Approach to Malaria Research and Control in West Africa
Principal Investigator: Donald Krogstad, M.D.
Lead Institution: Tulane University, New Orleans
– Malaria Evolution in South Asia
Principal Investigator: Pradipsinh Rathod, Ph. D.
Lead Institution: University of Washington, Seattle
– Determinants of Malaria Disease in Malawi
Principal Investigator: Terrie Taylor, D.O.
Lead Institution: Michigan State University, East Lansing
– Peruvian/Brazilian Amazon Center of Excellence in Malaria
Principal Investigator: Joseph Vinetz, M.D.
Lead Institution: University of California, San Diego
vaccines and global health :: ethics and policy 