An interdisciplinary team of Clemson University researchers focused on fighting organisms responsible for infectious diseases that threaten the health of billions of people globally has been awarded $10.5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant will enable Clemson’s Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center (EPIC) to develop a critical mass of scientists and research infrastructure that could accelerate the rate of discovery in the fight against pathogens that cause some of the world’s most devastating and intractable infectious diseases, including amoebic dysentery, African sleeping sickness and fungal meningitis.
This is Clemson’s second COBRE award and the first to the university outright. In 2009, a $9 million grant helped establish the South Carolina Bioengineering Center of Regeneration and Formation of Tissue (SC BioCRAFT), a collaboration with the Medical University of South Carolina. In 2014, SC BioCRAFT received a follow-up grant from the COBRE for $11 million.
The new grant was announced during Wednesday’s Clemson University Research Symposium at the Watt Family Innovation Center on campus.
“This grant is a force multiplier for advancing research by positioning our junior faculty and young investigators to compete for complimentary funding and by enhancing collaboration between other programs at Clemson,” said biological sciences professor and EPIC co-founder Lesly Temesvari.
The grant will provide funds for five junior faculty, four research technicians, 11 Ph.D. graduate students and administrative personnel. A portion of the grant will be used to create a network of external mentors to provide guidance and expertise to junior scientists. The funds will also help support efforts in Clemson’s Light Imaging Facility and Institute of Translational Genomics.
“The mentors’ ultimate goal is to shepherd junior researchers to a point of independence where they can secure their own funding and make even greater contributions to the science of fighting these diseases,” said Kerry Smith, EPIC director and professor of genetics and biochemistry.
While the diseases caused by parasitic and fungal pathogens seem a world away, Smith said recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks, also caused by emerging pathogens, prove otherwise.