UB will lend a helping hand to clinical workers and researchers in AIDS-ravaged nations with a $7.6 million contract awarded to the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The contract, provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was announced in a press conference on Tuesday morning.
It will establish a Clinical Pharmacology Quality Assurance (CPQA) program and lab at UB to ensure that researchers in developing nations have high-quality training needed for professional clinical trials.
"It will actually give an opportunity to the patients who are in these countries who look to be involved in research articles get access to projects so that they can [help] decrease community mortality," said Gene Morse, associate dean for clinical and translational research and principal investigator for the award.
AIDS research in developing countries is often marred by complications.
"It's very difficult to try to work with it at an epidemic level where a variety of different cultures are involved in incredibly diverse countries," Morse said.
Besides these differences, overseas studies are often blighted by language barriers, co-infections, dietary and nutritional issues, and a variety of other issues. The new CPQA program devised by UB will seek to educate researchers about these problems and how to deal with them while in the field.
Two hundred clinical researchers will complete the program's online tutorial every year, according to Morse. The school will open laboratories to conduct proficiency testing.
The CPQA will push UB into a major role in the international fight against the AIDS epidemic. According to a press release, the new program and lab will be unique to the university.
"It's a very nice opportunity for UB to showcase what we've tried to grow," Morse said.
There are several reasons NIAID chose UB to receive the contract, according to Morse.
"Our staff has defined quality in terms of pharmacology research ... our group here over the last 20 years has really defined that quality," Morse said. "We were competitive because we've been doing this for so many years."
Bruce Holm, senior vice provost and executive director of the Center of Excellence (CoE), believes that the distinctive nature of the project was also related to the award.
"From the outset, this program was designed to be something unique and ... in addition to the 25 years of experience, Dr. Morse and his colleagues were successful in winning this multimillion dollar award in a time when multimillion-dollar awards are very difficult to come by," Holm said.
The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences will use the money in conjunction with the Center for Excellence and local company Frontier Science & Technology Research Foundation, Inc. Holm believes that such investment in UB and similar public schools is a wise economic decision.
"This quarter [has] a nearly 30-to-1 return on investment which again reinforces the idea that investment in public research universities is at least as good as the stock market right now," Holm said.
Holm credits UB 2020 for helping to establish the CoE and the CPQA program.
"This is not something that simply pops out of the blue," Holm said. "It also represents a follow on to the strategic initiatives... from President John Simpson and Provost Satish Tripathi with the initiative referred to as UB 2020."
The study will take place over seven years, but CoE plans on pursuing several other high profile contracts and funding while it is going on.
"From the standpoint of the Center of Excellence and the university this, in fact, is just the beginning," Holm said. "This program... has actually launched several other initiatives on development stages that are this big or bigger. We hope to launch even more of these programs."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
