The Global Health Research Pathway

Learn more about ongoing global health research opportunities at Columbia's Division of Pulmonology, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine.

Uganda Virus Research Institute

Active Projects

• Multi-omic host response profiling to define and classify sepsis pathobiology in sub-Saharan Africa
• Advanced molecular diagnostics for disseminated tuberculosis
• Clinical and translational research on severe COVID-19 and influenza in Uganda

At the center of this project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between pulmonary/critical care physician-scientists, molecular microbiologists, immunologists, and computational biologists at Columbia University and Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI). Working with collaborators at UVRI and Columbia’s Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, we are applying state-of-the-art multi-omic approaches to define the pathobiology of sepsis in sub-Saharan Africa, with the goal of developing precision medicine-informed treatment strategies. Our Columbia/UVRI team is an active participant in the Sub-Saharan African ConsorTium for the Advancement of Innovative Research and Care in Sepsis (STAIRS), a multinational network designed to address vital knowledge gaps in sepsis epidemiology, diagnosis and care quality in Africa.

With collaborators at Columbia CII and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, we are testing the performance of existing and emerging molecular diagnostics for disseminated tuberculosis, a common cause of sepsis and critical illness in people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.

In collaboration with colleagues at UVRI, we co-led the first prospective studies of severe COVID-19 in Uganda, building on large clinical studies of severe influenza conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ongoing work in this area is focused on defining the pathobiology of severe COVID-19 in a large Ugandan cohort, including interactions between SARS-CoV-2 and  HIV co-infection.

Centre for AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa

Active Projects

• ADAP-TIV: Adaptive clinical trial for treatment support in MDR-TB and HIV
• Novel phenotypic diagnostics for drug susceptibility testing for new second-line TB therapeutics
• TARGET: M. tuberculosis genomics and transcriptomics to determine the contribution of subclinical tuberculosis to community transmission

Sited in Durban, South Africa, the Centre for AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) is a WHO and NIAID collaborating center with a storied history in TB and HIV research and well-developed infrastructure for clinical, translational, and mechanistic research.

Africa Health Research Institute

• Genetic mechanisms of bedaquiline resistance and M. tuberculosis bioenergetic remodeling

The Wellcome Trust and Howard Hughes Medical Institute funded research institute has ample well-equipped lab space for basic and translational research on TB and HIV as well as a unique community engagement in the Hlabisa area for population epidemiology studies.

East Africa Training Initiative (EATI)

• Building collaborative ties in the East Africa region for severe COVID-19 response

The goal of the East Africa Training Initiative (EATI) is to develop and support a Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine training program for Ethiopian physicians in Addis Ababa. With active support of Columbia Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine faculty (as well as faculty from Cornell and other US institutions) this initiative was launched in January 2013, graduating the first class of pulmonary fellows at Addis Ababa University School of Medicine in January 2015. 

EATI is the only pulmonary fellowship program in Ethiopia and has the support of the highest levels of Addis Ababa University and the Ministry of Health. The co-director of the program is Dr. Debi Haisch, a pulmonary critical care faculty at Cornell (and graduate of the GHRP) who has worked in East Africa for many years. Practicing pulmonary physicians in Ethiopia and ultimately these pulmonary physicians will independently sustain the pulmonary training program at Addis Ababa University. From January 2022, the program will have graduated 15 fellows all of whom have stayed in Ethiopia as practicing pulmonary critical care physicians, the majority staying on as faculty at the program or as leaders in pulmonary medicine in other Ethiopian hospitals and medical schools.

University of Rwanda

• Identifying gaps in critical care capacity in East Africa

We have an established relationship with the University of Rwanda Department of Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, and Critical Care, and are actively supporting their development of a two-year fellowship in Critical Care Medicine for East African physicians.