Annual report : 2000 / Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Date:
2000
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Annual report : 2000 / Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    By supporting a cadre of investigators such as Patrick Keeling, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund hopes to bring new thinking and research approaches to the areas of molecular parasitology and mycology and to. open up new model systems for organ- isms that have been understudied. BWF’s scholar awards and new investigator awards in infectious diseases have tar- geted parasitic and fungal pathogens, which despite advances in knowledge of their basic pathology continue to claim mil- lions of lives annually. We believe that by providing funding for basic research, we are helping establish a foundation of knowledge that will shift the balance toward more effective treatments for endemic and epidemic infectious diseases. In 2000, BWF made three scholar awards and three new investigator awards to scientists working in molecular parasitology, and two scholar awards and four new investigator awards to scientists working in molecular pathogenic mycology. The awards are intended to encourage scientists to use modern techniques from molecular biology, biochemistry, immunology, pharmacology, and genetics to advance fundamental knowl- edge of virulent disease-causing parasites and fungi. Fungal infectious diseases, in particular, pose a serious and growing health problem, in part because of the relative scarcity of safe and effective antifungal drugs, the rise in the number of people whose immune systems have been compromised by disease or drug therapy, and the relative lack of basic research on fungal pathogens. Malaria, which annually claims more than 2 million lives worldwide, is targeted for special support through our New Initiatives in Malaria Research program. This year, eight researchers shared seven awards. The awards are intended to attract more investigators to work on malaria, to encourage them to bring novel approaches to studying the parasites and mosquitoes responsible for causing the disease, and to enhance scientific collaborations among investigators at the same or different institutions. Beyond BWF’s award programs, we teamed with the Wellcome Trust, our sister philanthropy in the United Kingdom, in sponsoring a new round of funding in a trilateral program to support collaborative programs in infectious diseases of major health importance in the developing world. The program is “trilateral” in that it aims to foster existing or new collab- orations among researchers in a developing country and researchers in North America or the United Kingdom. The “center of gravity” of these projects is in the developing world, where bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic diseases cause significant morbidity and mortality. During the second round of awards, completed in the fall of 2000, approximately $9 million was awarded to groups working in a variety of countries. A full reporting of awardees will be made in 2001. The international effort to sequence the genome of Plasmodium falciparum, the most dangerous form of the parasite that causes malaria, has made large strides, with completion of the genome expected by 2003. BWF was one of the first funders of the project, which is also supported by the Wellcome Trust, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Department of Defense, and the World Health Organization. The information being generated already is proving useful to the biological community in its search for new targets for drug and vaccine development, and publica- tion of the complete sequence is only expected to accelerate those endeavors. Using the malaria genome sequencing project as a model, BWE has helped organize projects to sequence the genomes of several pathogenic fungi. In this way, we play a catalytic role in mobilizing the community and supporting meetings that encourage collaboration among researchers interested in a particular model system. BWE continues to support two training courses in infec- tious diseases. Designed for advanced graduate students, post- doctoral fellows, and independent investigators, the courses are held at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The courses expose students to the latest methods for molecular manipulation and analysis and provide an important means to improve networking within the research community. These courses also attract scientists into under- funded areas of research, such as the pathogenic fungi and understudied human parasites.