UTMB Center for Tropical Diseases (CTD)

Global Partnerships, Local Impact, Lasting Change
Advancing global health through research, education, and impact

Reaching Across the Globe

Welcome to the UTMB Center for Tropical Diseases. I invite you to browse through our web pages and hope you will be challenged and encouraged by what you see.

Founded in 1994 through the vision and leadership of Dr. David Walker, former Chair of Pathology at UTMB, the CTD has grown into a thriving center with over 100 affiliated faculty and a vast network of international collaborators.

At its core, the Center for Tropical Diseases is about people—dedicated researchers, educators, and healthcare professionals committed to advancing the fight against tropical diseases through research, education, and service. We are devoted to the countless individuals and communities who stand to benefit from these efforts. With a team of experts committed to tackling diseases that disproportionately affect the tropics and resource-limited areas, we strive to bring knowledge, innovation, and compassion to those who need it most.

About the CTD Research Educational Opportunities

Peter C. Melby, MD

Director

UTMB Center for Tropical Diseases

Email: pcmelby@utmb.edu

News

From Pilot to Progress: UTMB and Kabarak University Deepen Global Partnership

September 16, 2026 • 2:30 p.m. by Ada Jagape Sison, MSc

A year after its launch, the KUSAIDIA consortium: a collaboration between UTMB's Center for Tropical Diseases (CTD) and Kabarak University's School of Medicine and Health Sciences, is moving from relationship-building to measurable impact. KUSAIDIA, short for the Kabarak-UTMB Synergistic Alliance for Innovative Diagnostics for Infections in Africa, takes its name from the Swahili word for "to help." The consortium unites the two universities with ten affiliated Kenyan hospitals around a shared goal: developing rapid, low-cost, user-friendly microbiology tests suited to resource-limited settings, and strengthening the diagnostic and surveillance systems needed to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR) across sub-Saharan Africa.

Gustavo Hernández-Vidal (left) and Gregory Gray sample a cow’s nose at a Mexican farm. “If you don’t look, you’ll not find anything,” is Gray’s mantra. RODO GARZA/DGPPE UANL

UTMB One Health research featured in Science

February 24, 2026 • 2:36 p.m.

"Deciphering D - A mysterious influenza strain infects livestock around the world. Scientists worry it can become a threat to humans as well." The research work of Dr. Gregory C. Gray and The University of Texas Medical Branch One Health team on Influenza D is featured in the latest edition of Science.

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