BOSTON — Bree Aldridge, Ph.D., has been awarded a two-year, $50,000 research fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation aimed at encouraging promising young scholars. Aldridge is an assistant professor in molecular biology and microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine, a member of the Molecular Microbiology program faculty at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts, and adjunct assistant professor in biomedical engineering at Tufts University School of Engineering. Her research work is focused on tuberculosis.
The World Health Organization reports about one-third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis. Of that number, only a small number will become sick. In 2011, 8.7 million people became ill and 1.4 million died from tuberculosis. Despite efforts to simplify treatment strategies, tuberculosis still requires months of multi-drug therapy to cure.
Aldridge’s research combines microbiology and engineering approaches to understand the virulence and survival strategies of the bacterium that cause tuberculosis. By working with a multidisciplinary team of researchers to combine molecular approaches with mathematical modeling, she hopes to shorten and simplify treatments for tuberculosis.
Aldridge is one of 126 researchers from the United States and Canada selected to become a 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Sloan Research Fellows are nominated by their peers and chosen by a distinguished panel of senior scholars.
The Sloan Research Fellowships stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. Since their inception in 1955, 39 Fellows have been awarded the Nobel Prize in their respective fields and 63 have been awarded the National Medal of Science.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, not-for-profit institution based in New York City. It was established in 1934 by Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr., then president and chief executive officer of the General Motors Corporation.
About Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences
Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University are international leaders in innovative medical and population health education and advanced research. Tufts University School of Medicine emphasizes rigorous fundamentals in a dynamic learning environment to educate physicians, scientists, and public health professionals to become leaders in their fields. The School of Medicine and the Sackler School are renowned for excellence in education in general medicine, the biomedical sciences, and public health, as well as for innovative research at the cellular, molecular, and population health level. Ranked among the top in the nation, the School of Medicine is affiliated with six major teaching hospitals and more than 30 health care facilities. Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School undertake research that is consistently rated among the highest in the nation for its effect on the advancement of medical and prevention science.
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A note regarding the above references to the Sackler School: In December 2019, Tufts University announced that it would remove the Sackler name from all programs and facilities—including the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. At that time, the school was renamed the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
