Centennial Travel Award in Basic Science Tropical Disease Research
ASTMH accepts applications from physicians and scientists for this international career opportunity focused on benefiting underserved populations in locations in the world where the burden of disease is high.The recipient received $25,000 in support for a short-term research experience in the tropics
2018
Katherine Siddle, Harvard University
"Enhancing diagnosis of undiagnosed acute febrile illnesses in Senegal using markers of the host immune response"
Overseas location
Senegal
Tell us about your interest in this work and your career interests.
This project combines my experiences and interests in host-pathogen interactions with my passion for working in tropical environments. As I approach the transition to an independent research career I hope to bring together my diverse research experiences and interests to build a unique research proposal that combines host and pathogen genomics to advance our understanding and care of infectious diseases.
Throughout my training I have been fortunate to have a wide range of research experiences that have shaped my interests and career goals. My undergraduate research experience in the Philippines established early on my interest in working in different locations and environments. During my PhD I studied the human immune response to bacterial infection, in particular the role of microRNAs, which exposed me to the application of host responses to diverse topics. During my post-doc I have become deeply involved in the application of genomics for detecting and understanding the evolution of viral pathogens and have combined this work with a committment to establishing these approaches in endemic areas spending time in both Senegal and Nigeria.
Through my post-doctoral work I have appreciated first hand the challenges of directly detecting pathogens in clinical samples and the scale of undiagnosed infections in many regions including West Africa. This has led me to combine my doctoral and post-doctoral experiences to pursue a proposal that incorporates host biomarkers to improve our knowledge of the pathogens causing infections in Senegal. This proposed work represents the synthesis of my interests and will also allow be to acquire new skills in proteomic analysis that will further expand my opportunities in my future career to make improve our understanding of infectious diseases to benefit global health.
How will the Centennial Travel Award will enhance your career development in tropical medicine and hygiene?
The Centennial Travel Award would offer me a unique opportunity to pursue this research project at the intersection of my scientific interests in preparation for my future career. Spending at least 6 months in Senegal will enable me to strengthen existing collaborations in the country and build new connections. It will also provide me with an opportunity to understand the challenges of working long-term in a different environment and refine my research plan for an independent career in global health.
During my post-doctoral fellowship I have made several trips to Senegal to build sequencing capacity and apply metagenomic sequencing approaches to better understand the landscape of circulating viruses in the region. These experiences have confirmed to me that I want to dedicate my career to research in tropical medicine. To do this successfully I believe it is critical that I spend more time in an endemic country to obtain a better understanding of the important questions and challenges that need to be addressed. I wish to continue working in Senegal due to its burden of uncharacterized infectious diseases and strong research environment in genomics, which I believe will provide a ideal setting in which to develop this research. I have also built a good relationship with Prof Ndiaye (my proposed co-mentor) and I am excited to learn from his wealth of experience of working in Senegal to mature as a scientist.