Emory/Georgia TB Research Advancement Center (TRAC) - Revised Abstract: Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading infectious cause of death worldwide. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) End TB Strategy sets ambitious goals to reduce TB incidence by 90% by 2035, we are not on track to achieve them. We will need to “accelerate basic, translational, and clinical research to improve understanding of TB and expedite the development of innovative new tools and strategies to improve diagnosis, prevention, and treatment to end the TB pandemic,” as stated in the NIAID Strategic Plan for TB. We propose the Emory/Georgia TB Research Advancement Center (TRAC) to catalyze and elevate multidisciplinary basic, translational and clinical TB research at Emory University and partner institutions: University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, and Morehouse School of Medicine. The Emory/Georgia TRAC builds upon the strong foundation established by the Emory TB Center, created in 2020 in response to the growing number of investigators engaged in TB research. Across all the Emory/Georgia TRAC institutions, there is a critical mass of 72 investigators engaged in TB research, and TB PI/MPIs have received a total of over $104 million in TB research funding since 2010. Expertise in our TRAC represents the full spectrum of TB science: TB transmission and epidemiology, human immunity to TB, pathogenesis of TB using animal models (including non-human primates [NHP]), TB diagnostics, vaccines and host-directed therapies, pharmacokinetics, drug-resistance and TB comorbidities (HIV, diabetes). The Emory/Georgia TRAC will create added value by leveraging the scientific strengths at TRAC institutions to catalyze and expand multidisciplinary TB research. The TRAC will provide financial, logistical, and intellectual resources, pilot grants, and mentoring via a Developmental Core, Clinical & Population Science Core, Basic & Translational Science Core, and Bioinformatics & Integrated Systems Biology Core. These Cores will provide training and access to human study populations in high burden countries and the US, resources for BSL3 laboratory-based Mtb and animal model research, including NHP, and opportunities to utilize cutting-edge technologies and systems biology that can be leveraged for new multidisciplinary and translational TB studies. Further, the TRAC will provide mentorship and support for early- stage and non-TB investigators and create shared data and specimen biorepositories that will be a resource for new study ideas and preliminary data. The Emory/Georgia TRAC, through its Core activities and resources, will achieve these overarching aims: Aim 1: To catalyze and expand collaborative multidisciplinary TB research among established basic, clinical and translational TB investigators in the Emory/Georgia TRAC; Aim 2: To capitalize on the strengths of the Emory/Georgia TRAC universities to grow and diversify TB research in new directions; and Aim 3: To identify, train and mentor the next generation of TB researchers and scientific leaders.
