Emory University Launches Global Health Institute

Atlanta-based Emory University on Wednesday launched a global health institute that aims to train health care workers at the university and abroad; develop drugs; and build facilities to tackle diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, Reuters Health reports. The institute will partner with Finland's National Public Health Institute and will begin with a five-year grant of almost $20 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Emory University has allocated $110 million for the institute, which also will support the International Association of National Public Health Institutes. According to Jeffrey Koplan, vice president for academic health affairs at Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center, experts at Emory have begun working on the types of projects the institute will foster, such as the development of new drugs in South Africa, vaccine development in India and health research in Mexico (Fox, Reuters Health, 1/10).