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| The goal of the Johns Hopkins Center for Tuberculosis Research (CTR), founded in 1998, is to contribute to global tuberculosis control through a range of research initiatives in epidemiology, clinical trials, drug development, diagnostics, vaccine development, pathogenesis, and basic biology. The Center strives to be an internationally recognized center of excellence for research, training and clinical practice. The Center's faculty is drawn from six departments in the Schools of Public Health and Medicine, with a research portfolio that is broad and interdisciplinary. Its major strengths are molecular biology, epidemiology, clinical trials, and drug development; additional areas of emphasis include animal models, pathogenesis, vaccine development, behavioral research, immunology, and diagnostics. Research involves collaboration across disciplines, sharing of resources, and information dissemination through seminars. The Center utilizes the laboratory facilities of the School of Public Health, the School of Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The flagship clinical research site is the Baltimore City Health Department Eastern Chest Clinic, which supports clinical and epidemiological trials as well as clinical and public health training. In addition, international research sites in developing countries such as Haiti, South Africa, Brazil, Peru, and Thailand provide venues for applied research with support from USAID and other funders. The major educational program related to the Center is the Fogarty TB International Research and Training Program, which focuses on training and research opportunities in India, South Africa, and Peru. An NIH T-32 Institutional Training grant has been submitted to provide predoctoral and postdoctoral training positions to US citizens or permanent residents.
The Center received a $3 million planning grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct studies on reducing the burden of TB in areas with high rates of HIV infection. This new initiative is called CREATE, the Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS-TB Epidemic.
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