UMDNJ WELCOMES THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey and Newark Mayor Sharpe James were among those proudly welcoming the long-awaited International Center for Public Health (ICPH) at an official ceremony on May 2. Construction was begun in the Spring of 2000 on the $78 million facility — located in Newark’s University Heights Science Park — which houses the Public Health Research Institute (PHRI), formerly based in New York City, the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School National Tuberculosis Center and the school’s Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. The ICPH’s mission is to address the global public health aspects of infectious disease through research, clinical and educational programs, and to serve as an international resource that will encourage changes in the way the world deals with infectious diseases.

The Center’s three components will collaborate on research focusing on: drug and vaccine development, rapid diagnostics, antibiotic resistance, new methods for tracking the spread of infectious diseases, and the mechanisms by which microorganisms cause disease. The Center will recruit additional world-class scientists and will forge public-private partnerships to advance its work.

The Public Health Research Institute was created in 1941 to help fight epidemics in New York City. Among its achievements since then are: work on the smallpox vaccine used in the outbreaks of the 1940s; development of a new diagnostic assay for influenza in the 1950s; early experiments on oncogenes in the 1970s; isolating and cloning the gene responsible for toxic shock syndrome in the 1980s; the pioneering of DNA fingerprinting techniques; and identification of multi-drug resistant TB strain "W" as a prime threat in the 1990s epidemic in New York. Its staff now numbers 125.

Among its newest initiatives is the Russian Tuberculosis Program, a collaboration with the New Jersey Medical School National Tuberculosis Center. Funded by philanthropist George Soros, the program addresses several critical issues: the catastrophic rise of TB in Russia, the emergence of TB in epidemic proportions, the reform of Russian TB control practices and the efficient delivery of TB treatment services. In a number of civilian and prison pilot projects, the program has established an infrastructure for effective diagnosis and treatment, and has provided needed drugs and equipment as well as training local personnel.