UCLA Fogarty AITRP-Supplement for North India

University Of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A continuation of the UCLA Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) in North India with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi and medical research components of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) (New Delhi and Pune) is proposed. AIIMS is a premier biomedical education research institution in India and is funded by the Ministry of Health. Building capacities for HIV vaccine development and evaluation (Dept. of Microbiology) and for laboratory support of clinical therapeutic trials (Dept. of Medicine) will continue. A UCLA and AIIMS collaborative project on immuno genetic factors that impact on the immune responses to HIV infections and HIV vaccine in India is a special interest. The Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) India has growing biomedical and behavioral research programs to deal with HIV/AIDS-related problems in the ten million persons served by the AFMS. The UCLA AITRP India has assisted AFMS officers to learn about AIDS and to develop laboratory and clinical research skills. The focus on the Research and Referral Hospital (New Delhi) and the Armed Forces Medical College (Pune) as training sites will facilitate long-term mentoring by UCLA faculty of AIDS-related research projects in the AFMS. The UCLA AITRP India program that includes three months of intensive training at UCLA plus two-year mentored research on return to AIIMS or AFMS has proven to be very useful. This is supplemented by faculty visits in both directions. AIIMS and UCLA have been approved to apply for a Phase II International Clinical, Operational, and Health Services Research and Training Award (ICOHRTA), which will not support laboratory research. Thus, the AITRP has been adjusted by adding long-term one- to two-year postdoctoral training at UCLA, especially in immunology and virology, to meet the major need for strengthening laboratory sciences that underlies the clinical research at AIIMS. To facilitate the transfer of research training activities to AIIMS and the AFMC, UCLA will participate with courses, workshops and seminars at AIIMS and at the major research sites of the Armed Forces Medical Services, as it has done in the past three years. Because AIIMS is a major center for biomedical research and training in India, strengthening the HIV/AIDS research programs will help to meet many priorities identified by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) of the Ministry of Health, and the Division of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Ministry of Science and Technology of India. [unreadable] [unreadable]