Faculty at Brown will lead two new multimillion-dollar Centers for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBREs), thanks to support from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Jennifer Friedman ’92 MD’96, PhD, MPH, professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology, and Jonathan Kurtis ’89 PhD’95 MD’96, chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, are principal investigators of the COBRE for Translational Approaches to Pathogens of Human Significance.

Friedman and Kurtis lead the Center for International Health Research at Brown University Health, which received $12.1 million to establish the COBRE. They will use the funding to turn laboratory discoveries into treatments for some of the world’s deadliest pathogens.

The team will initially focus on malaria, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, and Ebola, which together kill 2 million people, about half of whom are children, every year.

Using a “team science” approach, the COBRE will bring together experts from different fields—ranging from molecular biology to population studies—with the aim of speeding up the process of moving research from the lab bench to the bedside.

“With the growing scale and complexity of scientific research, this approach is crucial to the ultimate success of our research project leaders,” Friedman says. “The long-term goal of the COBRE is to develop, sustain, and recruit a critical mass of investigators and establish key cores with a focus on some of the most significant pathogens impacting human health.”

RNA Takes Center Stage

Professor of Biology William Fairbrother, PhD, will lead the COBRE Center for RNA Biology in Health and Disease, which will expand RNA research and provide key infrastructure to support a growing array of RNA scientists across Rhode Island.

Backed by a five-year, $11.1 million grant, the COBRE will support a new cohort of early-career researchers, the acquisition of advanced research technology and equipment, and the administrative structure for a research facility based at Brown’s Giuliani RNA Center.

“The motivation for this effort is the promise that new developments in RNA biology will drive a better understanding and treatment of human disease,” Fairbrother says. “The COVID-19 global pandemic illustrated the importance of understanding RNA viruses and the power of nanoparticle RNA delivery. In addition, advances in structural mapping of RNAs and a new appreciation of the promise of modified RNAs are already driving new models for gene expression and human disease.”

With the goal of creating a critical mass of RNA biologists, the federal grant will support the research of five early-career scientists. The grant will also increase the ability of these researchers and others to incorporate cutting-edge RNA techniques into their work and educate the larger scientific community in the Ocean State.

Plus, the COBRE will also create opportunities for physician-scientists from Brown’s affiliated hospitals and the broader Rhode Island scientific community to conduct RNA research. These resources are a vital next step toward making Brown and Rhode Island a global hub for RNA research, Fairbrother says.