This semester, UTRGV professors opened the first Center for Vector-Borne Disease in South Texas at the university.
Christopher Vitek, the director of the center, said the goals of the center are divided into three areas: education, research and outreach.
“Certainly, the education component is a very strong goal that we want to pursue,” Vitek said. “We also are interested in pursuing general research opportunities. We have six different faculty right now in the center and we will be having more as we continue to grow.
“They are all involved in different research areas and we want to have a collaborative research effort to increase funding opportunities, increase understanding of diseases in the region, like Zika virus and so forth, as well as to increase the understanding of nonhuman diseases. Lastly, we also want to try and provide a source of location for community outreach where we can, maybe, have informative seminars, bring in guest speakers, have community workshops and that kind of thing.”
Founders of the center are Vitek; Beatriz Tapia, assistant dean for faculty development for the UTRGV School of Medicine; Erin Schuenzel, an associate professor of biology; Tamer Oraby, an assistant professor of mathematical and statistical science; Teresa Feria, an associate professor of biology; and John Thomas, an assistant professor of biology.
The center, which will not have a physical location, will bring together faculty with overlapping research interests and strengths to develop a self-sustaining, research-focused center of excellence in South Texas, according to Vitek. It will have a multidisciplinary focus to encourage research collaboration and cooperation between students, researchers, UTRGV departments and external partners. The scope of vector-borne diseases will include human, plant and animal pathogens, as well as their vectors, or carriers.
“I started thinking about [the center] about three years ago in the course of my research and talking to some other people from different departments and colleges here,” he said. “With their research, a lot of us have worked together in the past. It sort of developed this idea of bringing people that do similar areas of research.”
Feria said the center will offer certifications for students, as well as research classes and thesis programs.
“We will cover teaching the research and the service,” she said. “… So, students will be involved because they are the key, and they are the bone marrow of what the center can be. Students will be doing theses, research in general, and getting trained to continue doing research. So, we might also be able to establish some certificate for students to get trained in medical entomology or vector-borne diseases in general.”
Feria also said the center will try to educate the community on how to prevent diseases that are carried by vectors.
“I, myself, already work a lot with the community, so it seems like an easy thing to go out and experience,” she said.
The funding for the center comes from grants awarded to “the faculty members that are involved in the center,” said Vitek, who has received an estimate of $1.3 million in active grants.
“The center, itself, has not received any grants, yet, because it is still new. We just started it in January,” he said. “Myself, for example, I have three [Department of Agriculture] grants that are relevant to the center that work with vector-borne disease. I am part of the grant through the University of Texas Medical Branch from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. … I also have a grant from the Texas State Department of Health Services.”
Vitek also mentioned grants from other faculty members, such as the binational grant Feria received to research vector-borne diseases in the area, the CDC grant in which Thomas is involved, among others.
“Altogether, there are a lot of active grants right now to the individual faculty members,” Vitek said. “The next goal will be to try and have one submitted by multiple faculty members in the center, so we can sort of get the funding through the center.”
He also said one of the goals of the center is to have all the university involved.
“We are very excited about the center and we hope to involve students in the process of what’s going on,” Vitek said. “We want to make this center very productive. We want to try and have the entire university as much as possible involved as much in it.”
