Levy CIMAR Awarded a Biomedical Research Facilities Grant
The Stuart B. Levy Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance at Tufts has been awarded a $5.15 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to construct a new biomedical research facility in the Biomedical Research and Public Health Building on the Tufts Health Sciences campus in Boston. The Laboratory for Combinatorial Drug Regimen Design for Resistant and Emerging Pathogens (LCDRD) will provide a modern, centralized laboratory and collaboration space for the Levy CIMAR’s multi-institutional effort to generate novel drug therapies for known and emerging pathogens resistant to current therapies. The new facility will be shared by teams of interdisciplinary researchers from seven Tufts University schools, including the School of Medicine, and Tufts Medicine, as well as collaborators from other regional and national institutions.
The goal of the LCDRD is to accelerate research on antimicrobial resistant (AMR) and emerging pathogens, as well as design and develop new combinatorial therapeutic approaches for bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic infections. The alarming increase in infections caused by AMR pathogens in recent years, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrates the risk of losing the ability to treat infections caused by known pathogens. By leveraging Tufts’ expertise in bacterial, viral, and multi-drug resistant pathogens, innovative measures of combinatorial drug efficacy, and deep clinical expertise in treatment-resistant infections, the LCDRD will support the nation’s AMR crisis response.
“This grant will allow us to build a dedicated center for interdisciplinary collaborations where our researchers and clinicians can bring their global expertise to address the challenges of infectious diseases caused by antimicrobial resistant and emerging pathogens,” says Brian Noonan, executive director of Levy CIMAR.
AMR is a public health threat. According to the CDC, more than 2.8 million antimicrobial resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year and more than 35,000 people die as a result. Levy CIMAR was founded to unite Tufts University’s and Tufts Medicine’s expertise and experience in infectious disease research and clinical care to more effectively address the rise and spread of AMR. Faculty and members bring expertise in biomedical research, engineering, human and veterinary medicine, global health, environmental surveillance, policy, and education to the center for a “One Health” approach to understanding disease transmission and the mechanisms to stop it. Levy CIMAR is dedicated to preserving the effectiveness of existing antimicrobial drugs and establish a much-needed pipeline to develop new ones.