# Emory/Georgia TB Research Advancement Center (TRAC)

> **NIH NIH P30** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $972,285

## Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading infectious cause of death worldwide. Although the World Health
Organization (WHO) End TB Strategy sets ambitious goals to reduce TB incidence by 90% by 2035, we are
not on track to achieve them. We will need to “accelerate basic, translational, and clinical research to improve
understanding of TB and expedite the development of innovative new tools and strategies to improve
diagnosis, prevention, and treatment to end the TB pandemic,” as stated in the NIAID Strategic Plan for TB.
We propose the Emory/Georgia TB Research Advancement Center (TRAC) to catalyze and elevate
multidisciplinary basic, translational and clinical TB research at Emory University and partner institutions:
University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, and Morehouse School of
Medicine. The Emory/Georgia TRAC builds upon the strong foundation established by the Emory TB Center,
created in 2020 in response to the growing number of investigators engaged in TB research. Across all the
Emory/Georgia TRAC institutions, there is a critical mass of 72 investigators engaged in TB research, and TB
PI/MPIs have received a total of over $104 million in TB research funding since 2010. Expertise in our TRAC
represents the full spectrum of TB science: TB transmission and epidemiology, human immunity to TB,
pathogenesis of TB using animal models (including non-human primates [NHP]), TB diagnostics, vaccines and
host-directed therapies, pharmacokinetics, drug-resistance and TB comorbidities (HIV, diabetes).
 The Emory/Georgia TRAC will create added value by leveraging the scientific strengths at TRAC
institutions to catalyze and expand multidisciplinary TB research. The TRAC will provide financial, logistical,
and intellectual resources, pilot grants, and mentoring via a Developmental Core, Clinical & Population
Science Core, Basic & Translational Science Core, and Bioinformatics & Integrated Systems Biology
Core. These Cores will provide training and access to human study populations in high burden countries and
the US, resources for BSL3 laboratory-based Mtb and animal model research, including NHP, and
opportunities to utilize cutting-edge technologies and systems biology that can be leveraged for new
multidisciplinary and translational TB studies. Further, the TRAC will provide mentorship and support for early-
stage and non-TB investigators and create shared data and specimen biorepositories that will be a resource
for new study ideas and preliminary data. The Emory/Georgia TRAC, through its Core activities and resources,
will achieve these overarching aims: Aim 1: To catalyze and expand collaborative multidisciplinary TB
research among established basic, clinical and translational TB investigators and collaborators in the U.S. and
internationally; Aim 2: To capitalize on the strengths of the Emory/Georgia TRAC universities to grow and
diversify TB research in new directions; and Aim 3: To identify, train and mentor...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10596164
- **Project number:** 5P30AI168386-02
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Neel Rajnikant Gandhi
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $972,285
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-03-23 → 2027-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10596164

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10596164, Emory/Georgia TB Research Advancement Center (TRAC) (5P30AI168386-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10596164. Licensed CC0.

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