Yale and Nazarbayev University Team Up to Address HIV with Advanced Research Training
Yale School of Public Health and Nazarbayev University Partner to Combat HIV through Advanced Research Training Program
In an effort to combat the spread of HIV in Central Asia and support promising scientists and clinicians, the Yale School of Public Health has teamed up with Nazarbayev University (NU) School of Medicine to launch an advanced research training program. The program, called MoVE-Kaz (Molecular Virology/Epidemiology Training in Kazakhstan), is funded by a grant from the Fogarty International Center of the United States National Institutes of Health.
The training program aims to equip Kazakh scientists and research clinicians with the necessary skills to investigate the spread of HIV in Central Asia and its impact on high-risk communities. According to the NU press service, the number of people living with HIV infection in Kazakhstan has increased by 133% between 2010 and 2020, in contrast to the decreasing HIV incidence outside of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The populations transmitting the infections are poorly understood, and those living with HIV lack access to proper health treatments and interventions. The training program is intended to improve HIV disease surveillance capacity and treatment options with better knowledge of regional resistance patterns.
Dr. Syed Ali, Professor of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Nazarbayev University School of Medicine and co-principal investigator of the training initiative, stated, “The mission of the MoVE-Kaz program is to transfer cutting-edge skills to future generations in Kazakhstan. We must capacitate our young scientists by training them in advanced research skills at par with top world institutions.”
The MoVE-Kaz program will create a pool of highly skilled Kazakh scientists and clinicians who are knowledgeable about phylogenetic applications and trained by national and international mentors from partner institutions, including the Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University in Almaty, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and the State University of New York (SUNY).
The program will focus on molecular virology, including the genetic assessment of HIV and epidemiological approaches to research. The full training is scheduled to begin in early 2024, with the core curriculum held at Nazarbayev University School of Medicine. Participants will also have the opportunity to travel to New Haven for three months of targeted virology training.
The collaboration with international partners will enable researchers interested in statistical genetics and computational biology to travel to KU Leuven in Belgium to learn under Philippe Lemey, a professor of evolutionary and computational virology with the Rega Institute.
Overall, the partnership between the Yale School of Public Health and Nazarbayev University represents a groundbreaking effort to combat HIV in Central Asia and provide essential training to the next generation of Kazakh scientists and clinicians.
