INTERNATIONAL TRAINING IN AIDS/TB PREVENTION RESEARCH

This international training program in AIDS/TB prevention research at the Albert Einstein College of medicine (AECOM) focuses mainly on India and includes a small program for Eritrea. Towards our goal of capacity building in these countries, we aim to train Indian and Eritrean scientists in critical biomedical research, behavioral/epidemiological studies, as well as clinical research. Short-term training will involved specialized workshops in New York City was well as in-country sites that are going to be coordinated with sites in India where vaccine trials are going to conducted by international agencies such as IAVI. Medium-term training will include both graduate students of their Research Mentors who will perform collaborative research for acquiring training in the areas including but not limited to: characterization of the Indian clade of HIV-1; measurement of drug-resistance in HIV; use of small animal models to study the effect of malnutrition on HIV infection; administration of V3-loop peptide vaccine to prevent materno-fetal transmission, the use of a rapid, inexpensive detection system for drug- resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and the development of diagnostic antibodies and other serodiagnostic and molecular tools specific to the Indian subtype of Cryptococcus neoformans. Furthermore, a Master's degree in Clinical Research Training Program and a Post- doctoral Research Training Program are offered in AIDS/TB research. Furthermore, the program will help develop low-cost HIV/AIDS technologies, mediate the creation of an Indian reposition of essential, HIV clade C-specific reagents and plans to help former trainees independent establish independent AIDS research programs upon their return to their home countries and to interact with them in this capacity- building effort.