During the past year, Duke scientists, physicians and medical center administrators have been racking up frequent flyer miles in intimidating numbers-but not for lavish trips to tropical vacation hotspots.
Duke has recently increased its global health research efforts in Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia, sending its scientists to the various locales in order to set up research centers, enhance health care education and increase service opportunities for students.
Administrators and new international hires have already begun flocking to the temporary site of the Duke-National University of Singapore's graduate medical center, where Duke University Medical Center leaders aim to foster global ties and promote Duke's international image.
The search for internationally renowned hires to work at the school in Singapore-where dozens of famous researchers have relocated in the recent past-is well on its way, administrators said.
"I think we can confidently say research programs will be complementary [between DUMC and Duke-NUS]," said Dr. Sanders Williams, dean of the School of Medicine, who will also serve as the dean of Singapore's graduate school.
"Cancer research will be firmly on the radar screen, as well as emerging infections-those that can come out of nowhere-neurobehavioral disorders, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, metabolic disorders, eye disorders," he added. "We've already hired at least one faculty member for each one of those areas."
Major factors behind Duke's collaboration with NUS included the nation's ability to provide human and financial capital to support research, Sanders said.
Human and financial resources will also aid the development of the Center for HIV-AIDS Vaccine Immunology.
Dr. Barton Haynes, associate professor in the Department of Medicine and director of Duke's Human Vaccine Institute, was selected to lead CHAVI, which has centers in Europe, Australia and other locations around the world.
In a novel approach, involved scientists will study large regional "cohorts" and attempt the difficult task of exploring the earliest stages of HIV, Haynes said.
"There has been a difficulty in doing large-scale genetic studies because the patient resources were restricted in the hands of a lot of different investigators and countries," said David Goldstein, director of Duke's Center for Population Genomics and Pharmacogenetics and the leader of one of the center's research cores.
The collaboration will allow scientists to explore diversity in strains of HIV, susceptibility to the virus and various other factors in the broad effort to eventually design, develop and test new HIV vaccine candidates.
DUHS Chancellor Victor Dzau said he champions the advantages of shared knowledge through his support of global health-an increasingly controversial field in today's world. "Discoveries made in this country can be brought overseas to have a global health impact-rapidly transmitted to global communities," he said. "We'd like to be able to learn from other communities globally and reverse the flow of ideas as well."
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