Tri-Institutional TRAC Clinical Science Core

The Clinical Science Core: The role of the Clinical Science Core in the Tri-Institutional TB Research Advancement Center (Tri-I TRAC) is to provide new investigators (NIs), new to TB (N2TB) investigators and other TRAC investigators access to existing clinical TB research expertise, resources, and infrastructure. The

goals of the Clinical Science Core are the same as the overall TRAC and are to increase the number of new investigators in TB and to foster innovative multidisciplinary TB research. The activities of the core will primarily concentrate on our partner site GHESKIO in Port au Prince, Haiti, which is an established NIAID TB

clinical trials unit with 39-years of TB research collaboration with the Tri-I partners. We will also support TB research collaborations at Weill Bugando School of Medicine in Mwanza Tanzania which is also an NIAID supported TB research site. The Clinical Science Core will provide mentorship in clinical TB research to new

investigators, provide technical expertise in clinical TB research including study design, data management, clinical laboratory, and biostatistics. The core will provide access to TB clinical cohorts and a large well curated biobank of clinical samples from Haiti. Cohorts include families with multiple members with TB and

their contacts, longitudinal treatment cohorts with well characterized post-treatment recurrences, early bacteriacidal activity (EBA) TB trials with intensive monitoring of Mtb quantity in sputum, pediatric cohorts with children under 5-years of age with active TB and controls without TB, and a 3,000 person population

based community cohorts with incident TB cases. Biobanked samples include whole blood, serum, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, urine, sputum, stool, and host DNA. We also have a biobank of all 14,360 Mtb clinical isolates collected at GHESKIO from all new TB cases diagnosed over ten years with associated

demographic and clinical data. NIs, N2TB investigators and others will have access to these resources. NIs who receive a Developmental Project Award will also receive from the Clinical Science Core a complement of mentorship, career development, technical experts and access to clinical cohorts and biobanked samples. This

full package for NIs is the Training to Independence Pathway. The goal is to help NIs secure an independent faculty position and their first R01. NIs, N2TB, and experienced investigators may also apply to the Clinical Science Core for more targeted support which includes technical experts and access to cohort and biobanked

samples. This is time limited (