Center for Research in Tropical Diseases (CIET) Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR)
https://vinv.ucr.ac.cr/en/units/research-center-tropical-diseases-ciet-its-acronym-spanish
The Center for Research in Tropical Diseases (CIET) belongs to the University of Costa Rica (UCR), the preeminent University in the country. This research center was created in 1979 and was originally focused on parasitic diseases which at that time inflicted a great deal of suffering to the Costa Rican population. Currently, CIET addresses several infectious agents, including Clostridium difficile, Brucella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Dengue, Influenza, and Malaria; more recently the Center has expanded its scientific interests to plant pathogens and studies on cancer. The infrastructure of CIET is located within the Faculty of Microbiology and functions as the research branch of this academic unit. The purpose of CIET is to provide the academic, scientific, logistic and administrative platform required by scientists interested in infectious diseases in order to perform significant contributions in basic and applied science in this field of knowledge.
There are five main laboratories within CIET which are available to all researchers and students affiliated to the Center. CIET has a strong tradition of scientific productivity within UCR and is ranked as one of the main research centers in the university by number and citation of publications. In the last 10 years, the center has generated 291 scientific publications. Training of students at the graduate and postgraduate level is one of the main objectives of the center. In the last two years, CIET has generated 40 undergraduate theses, nine master theses and three PhD theses. CIET’s researchers have strong collaborations with scientific groups at the National Autonomous University of Leon, Nicaragua; University of San Carlos, Guatemala; and Gorgas Institute, Panama. Through these academic links, CIET has become a scientific hub with the ability to affect the development of research activities not only in Costa Rica but also at the Central American level
