Career Development
Individual Career Development Support Program
PI: Carol D. Blair, Colorado State University
The Individual Career Development Support (ICDS) Program will provide mentored individualized training that is focused on the brightest and best advanced post-doctoral and professional degree scientists, junior faculty, or other health professionals who seek career opportunities in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research.
All Individual Trainees will also be encouraged to take part in Training activities, including Group Product Development Training and Biosafety Level 3 Training, and certain Individual Trainees might even decide to focus their research on Product Development or Biosafety. The research projects will exploit the extraordinary expertise and facilities available in Region VIII concerning research on bacterial and viral Category A-C priority pathogens or emerging pathogens, and they will integrate with, complement, and enhance the overall mission of the RMRCE.
The ICDS Program directly supports the RMRCE’s objective of providing trained personnel for biodefense and emerging infectious diseases research. Most if not all of the trainees will work in the laboratories of RMRCE-funded PIs, and will thus contribute to the successful attainment of Research Project and Integrated Research Focus group goals.
Career Development Projects
RM CD 001: Defining the surface structure of Burkholderia pseudomallei
Introduction: Melioidosis is an emerging infectious disease for which an effective treatment only exists if initiated within 48 hours. New therapeutic approaches are in dire need. To develop new therapeutic strategies drug targets need to be identified and characterized. Accessible targets are localized on the surface of pathogens. Thus our approach to characterize the surface structure of B. pseudomallei for its lipid content and the contibution of surface lipids to virulence and pathogenicity.
Principal Investigator: Torsten Eckstein, PhD.
Institution: Colorado State University, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Fort Collins, CO
Mentor: Herbert Schweizer, PhD.
Co-Mentor: Patrick Brennan, PhD.
Institution: Colorado State University, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Fort Collins, CO
RM CD 002:IL-17 Agonist Therapy of Francisella tularensis infections
Introduction: Due to the high infectivity and mortality of F. tularensis infections, the organism has been developed as a biological weapon, including the introduction of antibiotic resistance, by several nations. No vaccines are currently licensed to prevent tularemia. Therefore alternative immune or natural therapeutic-based intervention strategies could prove beneficial to augment current antibiotic regimens.
Principal Investigator: Jerod Skyberg, PhD.
Institution: Montana State University, Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology, Bozeman, MT
Mentor: David Pascual, PhD.
Institution: Montana State University, Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology, Bozeman, MT