Pre-Doctoral Training Program in Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases

The goal of this program is to provide multidisciplinary training in vector-borne infectious diseases, with a particular focus on the mosquito-borne viruses and tick-borne bacteria that occur in the Americas.

This CDC grant trains graduate students in both theoreti­cal and applied aspects of working with arthropod vectors of infectious diseases and the agents that they transmit. This is a multi-disciplinary program that utilizes the expertise of UTMB faculty, local mosquito control personnel, and overseas collaborators. Research on arboviruses at UTMB’s Department of Pathology began in the 1990s and with the recruitment of new faculty and the establishment of the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arbo­viruses which contains almost 5,000 isolates, UTMB has become a leader in this field. The training program has an executive committee of internationally recognized experts in the field, eight core training faculty and 11 adjunct faculty. To facilitate research on arthropod vectors, UTMB has state-of-the-art BSL-2 and BSL-3 insectaries, constructed and operated according to the American Committee of Medical Entomology’s “Arthropod Containment Guidelines http://www.astmh.org/SIC/files/ACGv31.pdf”. The training grant provides full support for eight students per year. Students are taught broad aspects of vector-patho­gen-vertebrate relationships in the course “Biology of Arthropod Vectors”, and also attend seminars and meet with speakers at the “Infectious Diseases and Immunity Collo­quium”. In addition to laboratory-based research, several stu­dents have also been trained to conduct field work in South America, Mexico and Africa.

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