Dr. Sung-Jae Lee and Team awarded $1.5M for capacity building training program in Vietnam and Thailand

Dr. Sung-Jae Lee, a Professor-in-Residence in the department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM), along with MPIs Drs. Chaisiri Angkurawaranon, Le Minh Giang, and Chunqing Lin, recently received $1.5M in research funding for an NIH grant for the Fogarty HIV Research Training Program for Low-and Middle-Income Country Institutions. This project will be used to create Cutting-edge, Customized, and Comprehensive (CCC) capacity building for faculties and researchers at Hanoi Medical University (HMU) in Vietnam and Chiang Mai University (CMU) in Thailand, creating a beneficial foreign partnership for UCLA. Continuous training and career support will nurture junior to mid-career trainees in Vietnam and Thailand to become regional leaders and drive forces in HIV/AIDS control in Southeast Asia.

The partnership between UCLA and these foreign institutions is built upon the three institutes’ previous and current research and training collaborations and will leverage several existing research and mentoring infrastructures at UCLA, including the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIPTS); UCLA-Charles R. Drew University (CDU) Center for AIDS Research (UCLA-CDU CFAR); Division of Population and Behavioral Health (DPBH) Center of Excellence (COE); the Integrated Substance Abuse Program (ISAP); and the University of California Global Health Institute (UCGHI) GloCal Health Fellowship Program.

The training element of this project is front and center, and the trainees will receive training in three pillars: 1) research, 2) mentoring, and 3) leadership. This training will revolve around cutting-edge evidence-based pharmaceutical and biobehavioral strategies to prevent and treat HIV and comorbidities. The trainees will receive customized, hands-on training based on their individualized career development, starting with a 9-month visit at UCLA for intensive engagement in workshops, seminars, courses, and research projects, followed by a one-year structured in-country training encompassing in-country research, summer institutes, cross-country networking events, and exercise of leadership skills. A highly comprehensive mentorship system, featuring a primary mentor, in-country mentor, transnational mentor, rotational mentor, and peer mentor, ensures that trainees receive holistic guidance in subject expertise, understanding of local culture and resources, and forging global collaborations.

This project’s success is made possible through Dr. Sung-Jae Lee, who has a long track record of managing Fogarty HIV Training Programs. He previously has served as the Co-Director of the UCLA/Fogarty HIV Research Training Program in Thailand and Myanmar. He also co-leads the Health Equity and Translational Social Science (HETSS) research theme in the DGSOM at UCLA. This training program is closely aligned with his current commitment as the HETSS Co-Lead.

The training grant team within the CTSI’s Grant Submission Unit assisted with this grant application resubmission by working closely with Drs. Lee and Lin as well as administrative partners in Semel. Faculty interested in similar support for training grants should contact the team at GSUTraining@mednet.ucla.edu.