DOM faculty receive NIAID funding for INSPIRE project

Congratulations to the Division of Infectious Diseases faculty, Michael Chung, MD, MPH, PhD, Zanthia Wiley, MD, (pictured left to right), and Department of Biology faculty member, Anita Corbett, PhD, on receiving a five-year grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for a project entitled, “Infectious Diseases Summer Program Integrating Research at Emory (INSPIRE).” The project has been awarded $340,000 in year one and then $355,000 annually in each of the next four years for a total five-year grant of over 1.7 million dollars. Drs. Chung, Wiley, and Corbett will be the MPIs for the INSPIRE program which aims to prepare 48 underrepresented undergraduate students from throughout the country for a career in ID research.

This goal will be achieved by exposing INSPIRE students to hands-on research, conducting courses for professional and research skills development, and strengthening Emory’s mentorship capacity to address identity and underrepresentation. The five-year grant will accept a new cohort each year who will spend the summer in Atlanta and will also be mentored for nine months afterward for a total of 12 months of training and mentorship in ID research by Emory faculty. A successful pilot program was performed last summer (2023) that gave a beautiful glimpse of the impact the PIs hope to accomplish with this five-year INSPIRE program.

“Our pilot cohort of five undergraduate students (four African American women and one Latino male) from across the U.S. was a major success. They were mentored by both research mentors and “identity” mentors (with shared lived experiences). One of our students is co-author on a basic science manuscript and two students have presented their ID research at national conferences. We hope for a future of infectious diseases researchers who reflect the diversity of our communities and who will contribute to innovations that benefit us all.” —Zanthia Wiley, MD