The Heiser Program for Research in Leprosy
The Awards
In accordance with Dr. Heiser’s instructions, the income is used, not for treatment of patients,
but for basic laboratory research directed at a better understanding of leprosy and its bacterial
agent. The ultimate aim is to find measures for the prevention and cure of leprosy that will serve
to bring it under control. Research grants that support the training efforts of laboratories
involved in research on leprosy, or that provide funds for the initiation of new leprosy research
projects in the field will be awarded. Please note that in 2013 the Heiser Program is only
funding leprosy research and will not support postdoctoral fellowships in tuberculosis
research.
RESEARCH GRANTS IN LEPROSY
Purpose:
To provide support to basic scientists to allow them to contribute to the global goal of leprosy
elimination, in particular, the application of new and available tools toward diagnosis,
transmission, and the extent of drug resistance, but also to: (1) investigate mechanisms of nerve
damage and reactions and the means to predict and to prevent leprosy; (2) develop more
effective chemoprophylaxis, immunoprophylaxis, and rapid bactericidal drugs; and (3)
understand the organism, its origins, its pathogenicity, and immunological spectrum. Other areas
of importance are the use of the genome of M. leprae to develop new drug targets and identify
immunologically important molecules.
Types of Research Grants Available:
a) Two year research grants of up to $70,000, $35,000 per year.
b) In exceptional circumstances, the Scientific Advisory Committee will consider letters of
intent for larger awards for multi-year/multi-component/multi-institute projects involving leprosy
research in endemic sites.
Deadline for research grant applications: All types: March 20, 2013
a) Submit full proposal; requirements listed below.
b) Submit a letter of intent. The letters will be reviewed by the Advisory Committee and, if
appropriate, proposals will be invited and evaluated by Committee members later in 2013.
Eligibility:
Applications for leprosy research grants should come from laboratories that have experience in
leprosy research and have demonstrable ongoing, productive interactions with corresponding
laboratories in endemic regions and/or leprosy field sites/workers.
Application Checklist
Applications for a research grant (a) must include:
1.
2.
The Research Grant Face Sheet and the Grant Payment form.
A detailed description of the proposed project, not to exceed five single-spaced,
typewritten pages (15 pages in the case of larger, multi-component applications), exclusive
of bibliography, tables, and figures. Follow the NIH guidelines for margins, font and size
of type (11 point type or larger; ½” margins, etc.).
3. A proposed budget must accompany the application.
4. Curriculum vitae and relevant bibliographies of scientists participating in the project(s).
5. Statement of current grant support available to the laboratory/laboratories.
Download the document with the Research Grant Face Sheet and Grant Payment form, fill them
out, and e-mail them to lm@nyct-cfi.org. All remaining parts of the application package should
be contained in one pdf file and submitted electronically to Len McNally at lm@nyct-cfi.org.
The researcher’s last name and the word “Heiser” should appear on the subject line of your email. (e.g., Jones – Heiser)
Notes:
We will acknowledge all applications, and announce the awards by June 7, 2013.
Successful applicants must activate the grant between July 1 and December 31, 2013. No more
than 10 percent of the award can be used for the salaries of senior personnel. The Program does
not pay institutional overhead costs. Grants will be paid through the institution’s fiscal office. A
final report is required at the end of the grant year.
Address all inquiries to:
Len McNally, Director
The Heiser Program for Research in Leprosy
The New York Community Trust
909 Third Avenue
New York, New York 10022 U.S.A.
Tel: (212) 686-0010, ext. 556; FAX: (212) 532-8528
lm@nyct-cfi.org
The Scientific Advisory Committee
Gilla Kaplan, Ph.D., Chair
Patrick J. Brennan, Ph.D.
Stewart T. Cole, Ph.D.
Sabine Ehrt, Ph.D.
Jerrold J. Ellner, M.D.
Thomas Shinnick, Ph.D.
History
Dr. Victor George Heiser devoted his life to the study and treatment of tropical
diseases, leprosy in particular. As Associate Director of the International Health
Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, he circled the earth 17 times on his
medical missions. His experiences were recounted in a best-selling autobiography,
“An American Doctor’s Odyssey,” published in 1936.
In 1969, Dr. Heiser recalled that “sixty years ago it became my responsibility and duty to gather
up 10,000 lepers in the Philippines and transport them to a leper colony. The hope then was that
isolation could reduce the incidence of the disease and perhaps eventually wipe it out. It didn’t
work. Now we have a new system – the clinic system – and that, too, has had practically no
effect whatever in statistically reducing the incidence of leprosy. Indeed, it is apparently
increasing in many parts of the world. But we must not sit idly by while so many people suffer
from this horrible disease.”
Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Approximately 230,000 new
cases are detected each year, predominately in India and Brazil, but also in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal, and
Tanzania. In addition, millions of patients, no longer infectious, still suffer from the permanent
disabilities and handicaps that are the particular consequences of leprosy. These people, no
longer counted among registered patients, inhabit the leprosoria/“lazarios” (leper colonies) still
found in many countries on all continents and are a reminder that clearance of the infection is not
the end of the disease. Nevertheless, the current world leprosy situation has vastly improved
since Dr. Heiser’s time. Under the World Health Organization’s Global Leprosy Elimination
Program, by 1998 the global prevalence rate was estimated at 828,803, an 85% reduction since
1985. Still, global prevalence was 1.4 per 10,000 and, in the top endemic countries, 3.81 per
10,000. The elimination goal of one case per 10,000 was reset for the end of 2005, this time not
globally, but by country and region.
Yet, the goal has not been achieved in all major leprosy endemic regions. According to official
reports received during 2010 from 130 countries and territories, the global registered prevalence
of leprosy at the beginning of 2011 stood at 192,246 cases, while the number of new cases
detected during 2010 was 228,474 (WHO Weekly Epidemiological Report, 2 September
http://www.who.int/wer). Most countries that once were highly endemic have now reached the
elimination goal. During 2010, 17 countries, notably India and Brazil, accounted for 95% of the
new cases detected worldwide. However, pockets of high endemicity still remain in some areas
of Indonesia, Democratic Republic of the Congo Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and others.
The data on new case detection compared with prevalence figures indicate that in spite of
identification and treatment of the vast majority of patients, transmission is still occurring and
that individuals other than clinical leprosy patients, such as infected contacts or those with
preclinical leprosy, probably serve as important sources of ongoing transmission.
Today, leprosy is diagnosed solely on the basis of physical symptoms; the simple detection of
acid fast bacilli in the skin slit of the ear lobe, expressed as “bacterial index” (BI) and
“morphological index” (MI), is now seldom used. The mixed results of the Leprosy Elimination
Program in recent years have led to serious questions about definitions and validity of the
common epidemiological markers including “prevalence” (the number of registered and treated
patients at the end of a year), and “new case detection” (which can merely reflect the results of
intense leprosy elimination campaigns). The call has emerged for reliable tools to measure the
fall in the incidence of leprosy.
Underlying the conundrum of decreasing prevalence and relatively static new case detection
rates is lack of knowledge on transmission and incubation time of leprosy infection. Issues such
as primary portal of bacillary entry, transmission from paucibacillary cases, and
non-symptomatic carriage, are all unresolved. What is urgently needed are indicators that
directly and accurately measure the level of leprosy transmission at the population level.
Accordingly, the Heiser Program for Research in Leprosy and Tuberculosis has been placing
more of its limited resources into the basic research questions of diagnosis of infection,
transmission of the disease, and other issues such as nerve damage and leprosy reactions. The
Enhanced global strategy for further reducing the disease burden due to leprosy (plan
period:2011-2015).New Delhi, WHO, Regional Office for South East Asis, 2009 (SEA-GLP2009.3) (http://www.searo.int/LinkFiles/GLP_SEA-GLP-2009_3.pdf) aims at reducing the rate
of new cases with grade-2 disabilities worldwide by ≥35% by the end of 2015.
In 1972, the will of Dr. Heiser established the Heiser Grant in The New York Community Trust.
Succeeding Scientific Advisory Committees have been led by Dr. Maclyn McCarty, Dr. W. Lane
Barksdale, Dr. Barry Bloom, Dr. Charles C. Shepard, and Dr. Roy Curtiss III.
The program has contributed to research on the control of leprosy through research grants and
post-doctoral training fellowships, and continues to do so. More recently, it has made large
investments in major research projects, such as sequencing the genome of Mycobacterium
leprae, the Rifampin-Ofloxacin-Minocycline intervention trial in South India, and IDEAL
(Initiative for Diagnostic and Epidemiological Assays for Leprosy), a worldwide consortium of
researchers working on the application of new antigens for detection of sub-clinical leprosy and
new genetic markers of the leprosy bacillus for molecular epidemiological studies.