NIH Funds New Tuberculosis Research Advancement Centers

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced on April 6, 2022 the funding for the establishment of Tuberculosis Research Advancement Centers (TRACs). The funding will be through four grant awards spanning over five years, with the total funding in the first year alone totaling approximately $4.3 million.

The centers will support the development of the next generation of tuberculosis researchers, providing mentoring, funding support, opportunities for multidisciplinary and collaborative research, and training in laboratory and clinical settings. The continuing improvement of tuberculosis research will allow for the discovery or improvement of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines for the disease.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that is currently the second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide, after COVID-19. According to NIH, approximately 10 million new tuberculosis cases were diagnosed in 2020 and approximately 1.5 million lives were lost to the disease.

The grant awards were made to Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Emory University, Atlanta; and University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle.

Source: NIH