Read the full story, published by the Geisel School of Medicine.
Researchers from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth have been awarded a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create a first-of-its-kind, HIV-TB-specific research institute in East Africa.
Professor C. Fordham (Ford) von Reyn ’67, Geisel ’69, directs the Geisel School of Medicine’s programs in Tanzania. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
The award helps continue Dartmouth’s successful DarDar programs, which have built research and educational partnerships for more than a decade with the Muhimibili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. As part of the new Fogarty grant, Geisel faculty will partner with Boston University and Tanzanian colleagues to provide the training and infrastructure to build an HIV-TB clinical and operational research institute: the Tuberculosis Research Institute at MUHAS, the first such institute in East Africa.
Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among persons with HIV infection in Tanzania. Clinical and operational research to improve prevention and treatment of both adult and pediatric HIV-TB is a defined national priority in Tanzania, but there is no specifically designated and staffed institute to plan, coordinate, and conduct such research.
“The new Tuberculosis Research Institute at MUHAS (TRIM-TB) will expand our collaboration on HIV-TB training and research programs in Tanzania and help build the human, scientific, and administrative capacity within Tanzania so that at the end of the five years, this research institute can apply for funding, conduct and manage their HIV-TB research activities,” said C. Fordham (Ford) von Reyn ’67, Geisel ’69, professor of medicine at Geisel and director of the medical school’s programs in Tanzania.
