The NYC Tri-Institutional Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center (NYC TRAC) is a collaboration of Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Rockefeller University, which are adjacent to each other in New York City. The NYC TRAC receives support from the the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The mission of the NYC TRAC is to pool the expertise and resources of an outstanding team of senior tuberculosis (TB) investigators at the three institutions in order to expand the number of investigators in the field of TB research and to promote innovative multidisciplinary TB research.
The overarching goals of the NYC TRAC are:
- To increase the number of NIH funded investigators conducting basic, clinical and translational research in TB including new investigators, experienced investigators new to TB and diverse investigators.
- To foster multidisciplinary TB research with a focus on NIAID’s five priorities for TB science.
NYC Tri-I TRAC respond to the 5 priority areas of TB research defined by NIAID in 2018 by purposefully integrating clinical and laboratory TB science to enable more facile forward and reverse translation.
The Five NIAID TB Research Priority Areas:
- Fundamental knowledge of TB
- Diagnosis of TB
- TB Prevention
- Treatment for all forms of TB
- Tools and resources to advance research
Our Organization
The NYC Tri-I TRAC marshals the scientifically diverse and highly interactive community of investigators from the Tri-Institutional community of Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Rockefeller University with a collective expertise spanning the spectrum from basic molecular science to clinical investigation.
The three institutions are adjacent to each other on a Tri-Institutional campus on Manhattan’s East Side, alongside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The close and extensive network of interactions among TB investigators in the community brings flexibility to access the diverse resources and expertise of the community in a fit-for-purpose manner.
The Tri-I community has also established long-standing international collaborations in Haiti and Tanzania. The international TB clinical research site at the GHESKIO Center in Port-au-Prince Haiti, which our Clinical Core Co-Director, Dr. Pape leads, is our core partner for clinical TB research. We also support TB research collaborations at Weill Bugando School of Medicine in Mwanza, Tanzania, where Weill Cornell Medicine has long-standing collaboration.
Our four Cores (Administration Core, Developmental Core, Clinical Science Core and Basic Science Core) work together synergistically. The Clinical and Basic Science Cores will facilitate multidisciplinary translational research by “reaching across the aisle” and providing training to both basic and clinical scientists who want to initiate new translational studies of patient cohorts and samples. The Developmental Core awards six seed grants per year to new investigators new to TB science. The Basic and Clinical Science Cores will work closely with the Developmental Core to assure that recipients of the Developmental Project Awards have access to the full menu of technical experts and resources. The Administrative Core will facilitate this inter-core communication. It will also be responsible for management, financial oversight and program evaluation of all cores.