The IDSA Education and Research Foundation (ERF) and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) have joined forces to offer the IDSA ERF/NFID Joint Research Awards. Our goal is to support needed research by promising young researchers who may not otherwise find funding as federal and other institutional research support becomes more difficult to obtain.

Merle A. Sande/Pfizer Fellowship Award in International Infectious Diseases

Jennifer Downs, MD, an infectious disease fellow at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, will focus on Tanzania’s Lake Zone region, where she will screen 350 women for female genital schistosomiasis to establish its prevalence and collect data on disease associations (human papillomavirus (HPV) and HIV), the utility of antigen tests, symptoms, and social and psychiatric ramifications. The second phase of the study will involve a cohort study of 75 women diagnosed with female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), who will be treated with one dose of praziquantel and followed for six months to assess for resolution.

Astellas Young Investigator Awards

William J. Muller, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, will develop and test vaccine candidates for herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections, and seek better understanding of  the immune responses needed to control mucosal viral infections and chronic viral infections.

Manuela Raffatellu, MD, assistant professor in the department of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of California at Irvine, has focused on elucidating the many complexities of Salmonella interaction with both immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts. Dr. Raffatellu’s goal is to establish new paradigms on how mucosal pathogens interact with the host.

ASP Young Investigator Award in Geriatrics

H. Keipp B. Talbot, MD, MPH, will be identifying immune correlates in older adults that will serve as endpoints to measure the effectiveness of novel influenza vaccines. Specifically, her study aims to define which cellular and humoral immune responses correlate with protection from influenza infection in adults 50 years of age or older. Dr. Talbot is assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases and assistant director of research of the Center for Quality Aging at Vanderbilt University.

Wyeth Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development

Mark Daniel Hicar, MD, PhD, a clinical fellow in pediatric infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, will investigate the functional aspects of the HIV antibodies he has identified, defining the biochemical and structural features of HIV envelope trimer-specific antibodies and their relation to neutralization and binding of the envelope protein.

More information about the 2009 Joint Research Award Winners is available online.

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