Expertise and Capabilities

Areas of Expertise:

Projects involving the faculty of the CID include basic and applied studies of HIV/AIDS ( Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Unit), vaccine development, tuberculosis, Lyme Disease and malaria. The AIDS Clinical Trials Unit is funded jointly with LSU, and performs many of its clinical studies at the Tulane-LSU-Charity Hospital General Clinical Research Center (GCRC), which is a shared, NIH-sponsored facility. Novel studies of vaccine development are proceeding in collaboration with a commercial partner; they are based on the molecular manipulation of a bacterial toxin to remove its toxicity and retain its adjuvant properties by a senior Tulane investigator, and provide an innovative approach to the production of vaccines that can be given orally. Studies of Lyme Disease at the Primate Center are examining the diagnosis treatment and prevention (vaccine development) of this emerging disease. Fourth, some of the most intriguing work currently being conducted through the CID is research into malaria, which includes the basis of severe disease among children in Africa and the basis of drug resistance (which is the cause of its worldwide re-emergence [resurgence]). In fact, a candidate antimalarial from these studies which was shown to be effective in vivo at the Primate Center is just concluding safety (Phase 1) Studies in humans at the GCRC. Infectious diseases such as those being studied by the CID are the third leading cause of death in the world. Each of the emerging (and re-emerging) diseases being studied in the CID is a major unsolved public health problem. Improving the status of public health in New Orleans and elsewhere will require a mixture of the basic investigations described here, plus the clinical expertise and expertise in public health/ community-based interventions that Tulane is uniquely well-equipped to provide.

Special Capabilities and Facilities:

The CID is located in the J. Bennett Johnston Building encompassing the entire 5th floor. Established with a $2.1 million budget for the first five years based on Chancellor’s Funds from the Strategic Plan, the Center for Infectious Diseases is positioned to become a national and international Center of Excellence for the study of infectious diseases. Internally, continued and expanded interdepartmental collaboration, particularly with the Primate Center, GCRC, and Center for Gene Therapy, the growing expertise of the existing Tulane faculty, access to mapping capabilities at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research, and ample laboratory space combine to provide a critical mass of established investigators (22-24% of medical center extramural funding is in infectious disease research). Externally, The Center’s location in New Orleans (a unique laboratory with problems comparable to many Third World countries including poverty and high rates of infectious diseases) is another important positive. In conclusion, the Center benefits not only from clinical and basic expertise at the School of Medicine, but from basic science expertise in the College of Liberal Arts, basic and applied scientific expertise at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (Tropical Medicine, International Health and Development [socio-behavioral aspects of disease], Environmental and Community Health Sciences) and the ability to perform in vivo studies highly predictive of results in humans at the Primate Center.