A Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) support thematic, multidisciplinary centers that augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity." COBREs are led by NIH-funded investigators with expertise in the areas that are integral to the grant's main research themes.
The TGIR-COBRE aims to decrease the burden of global infectious diseases, particularly in low-income countries and has two major objectives. The first is to develop institutional strengths in global infectious disease research. The second is to develop the research careers of outstanding junior faculty in this field, under the mentorship of scientific advisors from three UVM colleges and five departments. A particular focus will be to train biomedical and quantitative data scientists so that these two traditionally distinct groups of investigators can collaborate and communicate effectively in the new era of big data. By leveraging existing strengths at the University of Vermont, the TGIR-COBRE will bridge the gap between the biologic and quantitative data fields of biomedical research to create a robust, well-organized academic home for the COBRE junior faculty and their mentors, as well as other faculty interested in global infectious diseases.