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Syphilis Researchers Receive $1.6M to Expand LMIC Genomic Data and Advance Vaccine Development

November 4, 2024
Syphilis vaccine development remains a high priority with a rising number of congenital syphilis cases worldwide. Unfortunately, vaccine development is still in a pre-clinical phase, and ongoing translational work is needed to identify vaccine candidates targeting highly conserved surface-exposed antigens expressed by geographically diverse strains of Treponema pallidum (TPA). But...

ID Faculty Members, Fellows Present Studies During ID Week

October 10, 2024
ID Week took place October 16-19 in Los Angeles, CA, the joint annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the HIV Medicine Association, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists. UNC’s Division of Infectious Diseases was...

Searching for a Vaccine Against an Ancient Scourge

September 19, 2024
With data from one of the most extensive genomic surveys of the syphilis bacterium – correlated with clinical information from patients – an international team of researchers and doctors are on the hunt for proteins on the surface of the microbe that don’t vary and could be good targets for...

The Continued Rise in Syphilis Cases: An Increasing Priority For Global Public Health

April 25, 2024
April is sexually transmitted infections (STI) awareness month, and Arlene Seña, MD, MPH, a researcher with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, is sounding the alarm about the importance of syphilis prevention, testing, and treatment. U.S. syphilis cases have increased nearly 80% since 2018,  a level not seen...

Seña Awarded $1.9 Million to Advance Diagnostic Product Development for Syphilis

December 13, 2022
The NIAID has awarded Arlene Seña, MD, MPH, a member of the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases and professor of infectious diseases, $1.9 million to initiate a longitudinal clinical study over 16 months that will advance diagnostic product development for syphilis, with the potential for additional funding over...

STD Awareness in April: Infectious Disease Experts Are Working to Advance the Development of Vaccines for Sexually Transmitted Infections

April 20, 2022
During April, STD Awareness provides an opportunity to talk about STIs and encourage individuals to be proactive about their sexual health and promotes regular STI/HIV screening and testing. Although research in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has evolved rapidly on multiple fronts, a critical remaining challenge is the development of safe and effective...

Institute research sampling, 2018-2020

July 7, 2020
By the spring of 2020, the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic caused many researchers affiliated with UNC’s Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases to pivot their studies to focus on testing, treatment and prevention of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Here, a look at some of the projects underway in the...