UTMB’s Center for Tropical Disease Research partners with Kenya Medical Research Institute
UTMB’s mission is to improve health for the people of Texas and around the world. While health care providers at UTMB
hospitals and clinics are taking care of the home front — UTMB’s Dr. Peter Melby and others, are fulfilling the mission around the world.
According to UNICEF, nearly half of all deaths of children under the age of 5 are from malnutrition — with alarming rates in Asia and Africa. Those who don’t die from malnutrition are at greater risk of dying from common infections, even after nutritional intervention.
Melby, director of UTMB’s Center for Tropical Diseases, is working with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) to understand how best to improve malnourished children’s ability to fight infectious diseases after nutritional intervention. KEMRI is the equivalent to the United States’ National Institutes of Health.
“Once a malnourished child is caught up to the appropriate height and weight, through nutritional interventions, it appears they
continue to have difficulty combatting infectious diseases,” said Melby. “We’re studying how to strengthen their immune system.”
And Melby isn’t alone in his mission to improve health care for Kenyans. Scott Weaver, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity, is studying mosquito-borne viruses chikungunya, dengue and o’nyong-nyong with KEMRI. Janice Endsley, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology, is studying tuberculosis in the country, and Dr. Philip Keiser, International HIV Program and clinic director, is studying HIV care.
This is part of a collaboration between UTMB and KEMRI, aimed at advancing research and education for both organizations.
“A lot of U.S. investigators do research in developing nations and leave,” said Melby. “We’re partnering with KEMRI and the University of Nairobi to share information and knowledge to have impact over the long-term.”
The collaboration also includes School of Medicine students from UTMB’s Center for Global Health Education (CGHE) program. In the 
three years that UTMB has worked with KEMRI, 32 medical students and eight residents have studied in the country. Training abroad expands students’ medical experience because of the morbidity of the cases and different approaches to care seen in developing nations such as Kenya.
Melby, along with Director for CGHE Dr. Matthew Dacso and Director of Operations for CGHE Jonathan Mwiindi, just returned from conducting a grant-writing workshop for KEMRI research investigators. Other UTMB faculty who participated included Keiser, Endsley, Dr. Rick Goodgame from internal medicine, Dr. Christine McGrath from obstetrics and gynecology and Dr. Lem Aigbivbalu from pediatrics.
This group of veteran researchers has collectively written more than 50 grants. They were happy to help KEMRI investigators find grant opportunities and craft a compelling proposal.
Melby emphasizes that the collaboration with KEMRI has been mutually beneficial. “They’ve showed us how to do more with less,” he said. “While the research resources in Kenya may be limited, they bring tremendous intellectual capital to the partnership. We’ve learned how to effectively utilize limited resources, which is important in research when funding is limited.”
In addition to malnutrition, Melby and other researchers at the Center for Tropical Diseases are studying leshmaniasis, a debilitating parasitic disease — common to the region— that particularly affects people who are malnourished. “Our hope is to figure out the proper medications and treatments to rebuild a malnourished person’s immune system to improve their quality of life,” said Melby.