The Health Grand Challenge will focus on the pressing problems of infectious disease around the globe.  Infectious diseases impose a heavy health burden in the developing world.  In poor countries, diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis continue to take a tremendous toll. Child mortality remains high—for example, twenty percent of children in Africa die before the age of five years of age—with many children dying from preventable or treatable diseases such as acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, and measles. Although the aftermath of infectious disease is most dire in poor countries, developed countries also have reasons to be concerned. The outbreaks of SARS and the H5N1 avian influenza have intensified fears of global pandemics. Bacterial infections are a threat of increasing importance, not only because of the potential of agents like anthrax to be used for bioterrorism, but also because of the dramatic rise in antibiotic resistance among pathogens.

The Health Grand Challenge is developing programs that support and expand research on infectious disease conducted across the University, and providing new educational and research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, Princeton researchers are developing environmental and biological strategies for fighting malaria; modeling the spread of infectious disease and the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria; studying the political, economic and cultural factors that influence the distribution of medicines and the quality of health care in low-income environments; researching the economic and social consequences of morbidity and mortality from infectious disease; and studying ethical issues that stem from advances in biomedicine. There is intense interest among Princeton’s graduate and undergraduate students in learning about global health issues and applying that knowledge in their research and, eventually, their careers.

The cooperative will focus on multidisciplinary research as solutions to the complex problems of infectious disease demand the integration of knowledge from multiple disciplines, including biology, engineering, the social sciences, ethics and public policy. In addition, the Health Grand Challenge will seek to establish “research bases” in countries with high levels of infectious disease: potential sites may include Ghana, South Africa, and Brazil. These sites will support faculty and student field research, internships and educational opportunities, and scholarly exchanges with collaborating local institutions.

The Health Grand Challenge will work on the development of new courses including freshmen seminars, larger survey courses, and graduate seminars, all of which will deal with the scientific, technological, economic and social challenges posed by infectious disease.