Description

This program empowers mid-to-late assistant professors to undertake creative, multidisciplinary research into the pathogenesis of infectious diseases—specifically, the fundamental biological processes at the intersection of host and pathogen. The initiative seeks to stimulate high-impact, high-risk studies that deepen our understanding of how infectious diseases operate, how colonization and infection unfold, and how health is maintained in the face of microbial challenges. Proposals may focus on any human infectious disease, including those caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, or metazoan parasites, and may utilize molecular, cellular, systemic, or animal model approaches. The program is especially interested in research that explores understudied pathogens, emerging diseases, the microbiome (when framed as infectious disease pathogenesis), and the impact of climate change on disease mechanisms.