West Africa - Tulane University Laboratory Training Fellowship Supplement for Partnership for Research in Emerging Viral Infections Sierra Leone (PREVSL) U2RTW011248

Tulane University Of Louisiana, New Orleans LA

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Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract: We describe here our proposal for supplemental funding to develop a 3-month, laboratory-based, mentored practicum fellowship, based at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana to provide a West African doctoral candidate with hands-on practical experience in cell culture, pseudovirus production, immune cell profiling, intra-extra cellular staining, Luminex immune-assay, genomics, and transcriptomic profiling. PREVSL PIs Moon and Schieffelin have been involved in regional coordination meetings within the RETAIN technical working group. RETAIN is a broad coalition of stakeholders representing the U.S. Government and international academic institutions. Virtual meetings have been held twice monthly for several years, with a goal of assisting the University of Liberia College of Health Sciences (ULCHS) in increasing its research productivity and improving medical and public health education in Liberia more broadly. Further, the RETAIN working group, whenever possible, leverages U.S. Government and other health investments in the region in order to build health science research capacity more broadly in West Africa. The West Africa -Tulane University Laboratory Training Fellowship builds on recent strategic planning between ULCHS and RETAIN by providing needed advanced laboratory training towards the completion of a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology. This Laboratory Training Fellowship will compliment research capacity building activities developed through out parent grant, titled Partnership for Research in Emerging Viral Infections Sierra Leone (PREVSL) U2RTW011248. In this regard, Kalilu Donzo, a Liberian researcher completing his PhD at the University of Ghana has been selected as a Fellow under this proposal should it be funded. This mentorship intensive Fellowship includes three-months embedded within the Schieffelin laboratory at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA to gain the laboratory skills described herein, and that are needed to complete his doctoral thesis research titled: Immunologic and genetic characterization of Measles Virus in vaccinated individuals during a re-emergence outbreak in Liberia.