The School of Medicine and Health Sciences was awarded Wednesday a multi-million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to aid research in neglected diseases, according to a University news release.

The $15 million grant will go toward rebuilding laboratories to study neglected diseases and infections that affect poverty-stricken areas, research professor Dr. Peter Hotez said.

The new laboratories will be able to better support research for the development of new vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics for “neglected infections of poverty in poor developing countries, especially for children, who are the most vulnerable to these diseases,” according to the release.

“It’ll allow us to bring in more faculty recruitments and have more space to expand our research mandate,” Hotez said.

According to Hotez, the funds will also be used for renovations in Ross Hall.

“The NIH funds for this initiative will transform biomedical research and enable us to expand critical areas of much-needed clinical care and policy work in the field of NIoPS and [neglected diseases],” University Provost and Vice President for Health Affairs John Williams said.