Gates Package — page 117

subsequently became Dean of the Medical School in Bamako and Head of the NIAID ICER HIV/AIDS (SEREFO) research program, Dr. Constance Souko a senior scientist in the ICER Leishmaniasis program, and Dr. Amadou Diallo, previous Rector of the University of Bamako. The research program which proved to be the basis of the NIH/Mali collaboration was initially focused on the role of the mosquito vector in the epidemiology of malaria and was funded by the WHO (TDR) / Rockefeller Foundation partnership program. Dr. Yeya Toure was the PI in Mali, Dr. Mario Coluzzi headed the Rome component of the program and Dr. Robert Gwadz was responsible for the NIH segment. To provide a structure to manage this research effort, the Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC) was established in 1989 by agreement between the Dean of the University of Bamako Faculty of Medicine and the Director of the Division of Intramural Research, NIAID. Dr. Yeya Toure was named the first Director of the MRTC and was the person primarily responsible for working with the NIH in developing the MRTC infrastructure and new laboratories. When Dr. Toure took a posting with the WHO in Geneva in 2001, Drs. Ogobara Doumbo and Sekou Traore were named co-Directors of the MRTC by the Dean of the Medical School. Based on the success of the WHO/RF program additional support was solicited from a number of donor agencies. With funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the program was expanded to include clinical and epidemiological studies of malaria and Dr. Richard Sakai was posted at the MRTC as the NIH Resident Scientist in Mali. Dr. Sakai had a wealth of international experience before going to Mali and since 1990 has been responsible for coordinating NIH activities at the Center. His efforts for the program and the people of Mali have become legendary and he has been honored by the President of Mali with the award of "Chevalier of the Nation." From the inception of the MRTC, significant support has been obtained from a number of USAID programs including the USAID Mission, Bamako, and from the Combating Childhood Communicable Diseases (CCCD) and Health and Human Resources Analysis for Africa (HHRAA) programs of the AID Africa Bureau in Washington. Beginning in 1992, USAID funds allowed the expansion of the scope of work in Mali to include studies of the genetic basis of malaria parasite resistance to anti-malarial drugs and the effects of various human hemoglobinopathies on the pathogenesis of malaria. USAID funds were also used to significantly expand and improve the research laboratories and support facilities at the MRTC. USAID can justifiably take credit for much of what constitutes the infrastructure of the MRTC today. Additional support for the MRTC was obtained from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the WHO, NASA and the MacArthur, SatelLife and Dreyfus Health Foundations.