The Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) was founded in 1970 through the initiative of the Norwegian and Swedish Save the Children organizations seconded by the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia. The Institute got its name from the Norwegian physician, Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen, who first described the leprosy bacillus (Mycobacterium leprae). AHRI is a biomedical research institute that works in developing tools for prevention, control and treatment of mycobacterium and other diseases of public healthy importance through applied and basic biomedical research and training.