South Africa and US collaborate on medical research
16 April 2015
The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and the American National
Institutes of Health (NIH) are awarding 31 grants to American and South African
scientists to support research targeting HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and HIV-related co-
morbidities and cancers.
The NIH is a unit of the US's Department of Health and Human Services.
Totalling $8-million in first-year funding, the awards are the first to be issued
through the South Africa–US Program for Collaborative Biomedical Research. The
programme, which was established in 2013 with funding from NIH and SAMRC, is
designed to foster and/or expand basic, translational, behavioural and applied
research to advance scientific discovery among American and South African
researchers working collaboratively in the areas of HIV/Aids and TB.
The new awards will support research conducted at eight South African institutions
and link scientists at these institutions with
American researchers at more than 20
US-based research organisations, including the NIH.
"South Africa is a major partner in the fight to end both HIV/Aids and tuberculosis,"
said Anthony S Fauci, the managing director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the NIH.
Scientific collaboration
"These new awards tap the scientific expertise of both of our countries in an effort
to further key research in these disease areas. We are particularly gratified to work
with the South African Medical Research Council given its history of visionary
leadership and outstanding commitment to fostering biomedical research excellence
and innovation."
Among the newly funded research projects are those targeting HIV prevention,
particularly among high-risk young women; identifying HIV-infected individuals and
determining how best to link them to and retain them in medical care; developing
strategies
for optimising the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of HIV-associated
cancers; and addressing scale-up of TB prevention and treatment strategies,
particularly among TB-infected mothers and children.
Twelve of the awards will support two years of research; 19 awards will fund five-
year collaborative projects. The list of initial 24 awards will be updated to include
the seven remaining projects once they are awarded.
In addition to NIAID, other NIH institutes and centres participating in the South
Africa–US Program for Collaborative Biomedical Research include the Eunice
Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the
National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Fogarty
International Center and the Office of AIDS Research.
It is anticipated that NIH and SAMRC will solicit additional applications for the
programme in two years.
American partners
NIAID conducts and
supports research — at NIH, throughout the US, and worldwide
— to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop
better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses.
NIH is the US's primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical,
and translational medical research, and investigates the causes, treatments, and
cures for both common and rare diseases.
Source: National Institutes
of Health
Scientific and technological skills are key to South Africa's competitiveness (Photo: Sasol / MediaClubSouthAfrica.com)
