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Welcome to the Translational Global Infectious Diseases Research Center (TGIR). The TGIR is a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), which support thematic, multidisciplinary centers to augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity. These centers are funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The TGIR is housed within the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and is closely aligned with the talented team of researchers and clinicians at UVM’s Vaccine Testing Center. 

The TGIR will leverage UVM's substantial existing strengths in global infectious diseases research, complex systems and computational modeling. Bringing investigators from these disparate disciplines together will result in synergies that foster novel, collaborative research.  A team of experienced directors and scientific advisers lead the effort, supported by two new facilities, the “Mathematical and Computational Predictive Modeling” and “Human and Population Research” cores. The TGIR will develop four junior faculty under the mentorship of scientific advisers from three UVM colleges and five departments. 

The TGIR COBRE: bridging the culture gaps between biological and computational biomedical research. 

TGIR in the News

Coronavirus Seminar

On February 6th experts from five UVM colleges and institutes gathered for an on-campus "virus slam" to discuss the 2019-nCoV coronavirus. This event was organized by the TGIR as a way for scientists and physicians across a variety of disciplines such as Cindy Noyes, M.D. (above), an infectious disease specialist who co-leads the University of Vermont Medical Center’s preparations for the potential arrival of novel diseases, to share knowledge on the new virus. To read more about the event on UVM's website, click here.

Cores

The TGIR will design, develop and implement three Cores: an Administrative/Academic Core; a Mathematical and Computational Predictive (MCP) Modeling Core; and a Human and Population Research (HPR) Core. The Administrative Core will include the three COBRE directors/Co-PIs, the scientific advisors/senior mentors, the core directors, the internal and external advisory boards, and administrative staff.The MCP Core, led Jason Bates, PhD, will “bridge the culture gap” between biomedical and quantitative data scientists in the analysis and use of big data sets in global infectious diseases, including the spectrum of data from biologic systems to population-based disease transmission and surveillance data. The HPR Core, led by E. Ross Colgate, PhD, MPH, will facilitate and accelerate high-quality clinical and translational human research by the COBRE faculty and will capitalize on the infrastructure of the UVM Vaccine Testing Center.

Team 

The TGIR will develop four junior faculty under the mentorship of scientific advisors from three UVM colleges and five departments. Institutional support will enable recruitment of three new junior faculty while internal and external advisory committees provide formal, unbiased oversight. Two physician-scientists with complementary strengths in global infectious diseases and an outstanding computational biologist with expertise in disease modeling will lead the TGIR. Learn more about the team.

 

Projects 

The TGIR will initially support the following junior faculty and their projects:

Dr. Benjamin Lee: “Development of B cell responses and serological immunity following oral rotavirus vaccination in infants” 

Dr. Laurent Hébert-Dufresne: “Network epidemiology and the quantification of behavioral interventions”

Dr. Charles Matthew Kinsey: “Discriminating Latent Tuberculosis from Lung Cancer in High-Risk Populations”

Dr. Sean Diehl: “Using Dengue controlled human infection model to identify adaptive immune correlates of protection”