NIH Establishes Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease has published it's official press release and announcement of the newly awaded $17 million dollars to establish a network of research centers striving to understand and combat emerging infectious diseases. The network Centers for Research in Emergining Infectious Diseases will be NIAID-funded $82 million over the next five years. According to the news release "research projects will include surveillance studies to identify previously unknown causes of febrile illnesses in humans; find the animal sources of viral or other disease-causing pathogens; and determine what genetic or other changes make these pathogens capable of infecting humans." Investigators of CREID will also focus on developing both reagents and diagnostics assays for improved detection of emerging pathogens and "study human immune responses to new or emerging infectious agents." Read the full NIAID press release on CREID here!
United World Antiviral Network
UW investigators are among the 11 center grant awardees, collaborating with global peer institutions to establish the United World Antiviral Research Network (UWARN). UWARN's network investigators include centers and labs from Aga Khan University in Pakistan, IRESSEF in Senegal, KRISP in South Africa, Chang Gung University in Taiwan, FIOCRUZ in Brazil and researchers at Rockefeller University in New York City.
UWARN's University of Washington Principal Investigators include Wesley C. Van Voorhis, MD, PhD (Director of CERID, Division of Allergy and Infectious Disease), Judith Wasserheit, MD, MPH (Department of Global Health, Chair), Michael Gale Jr., PhD (CERID PI, Director of CIIID, Departments of Immunology, Microbiology, & Global Health), and Peter Rabinowitz, MD, MPH (CERID Affiliate, Director of COHR, Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Family Medicine, Global Health, Epidemiology, and Medicine).
Interested in keeping abreast with UWARN's progress and research? For the time being, UWARN's website will be housed within CERID - you can find a new tab in our navigation menu labeled UWARN. Stay tuned for updated pages, news, and content!