UVM awarded $12.3M for infectious disease research center

UVM's Larner College of Medicine is getting a $12.3 million federal grant for a new center for the study of infectious diseases.

It's called the "Translational Global Infectuous Disease Research Center." Researchers hope to decrease the number of global infections and diseases, especially in low-income countries.

The junior faculty will be mentored under the scientific advisors from UVM to gain more research and expand the education opportunities.

"This program will do this by developing new ways to combine strengths here at the university in traditional immunology and lab-based science and clinical research, with complex systems and computational mathematical modeling," said Benjamin Lee, an assistant professor with the Department of Pediatrics and Vaccine Testing Center.

The program will target diseases like HIV, influenza, tuberculosis, Ebola, and Zika viruses.