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 $350
Million for New Regional Biodefense Research Centers
September 22, 2003
Reprinted
from SSTI Weekly Digest, a publication of the State
Science and Technology Institute.
Approximately
$350 million in grants recently awarded by one of the
nation's leading biodefense research agencies are intended
to lessen the effects of any future bioterror attack.
Administered by the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the funding will be spread
over five years for establishing eight Regional Centers
of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious
Diseases Research (RCEs).
Each
regional center, receiving between $40-50 million, consists
of several partner institutions. The eight leads are
Duke University, Harvard Medical School, the New York
State Department of Health, the University of Chicago,
the University of Maryland, the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston, the University of Washington,
and Washington University in St. Louis.
In
light of the terrorist attacks of 2001, Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson
said the RCEs will not only prepare the U.S. for a bioterrorism
attack, but also enhance the nation's ability to deal
with any public health crisis, such as SARS and West
Nile virus. NIAID, a part of HHS' National Institutes
of Health, will oversee the nationwide group of multidisciplinary
centers.
The
RCE program's primary role is to foster the physical
and intellectual environments in which wide-ranging
research on infectious diseases can proceed productively
and safely. Economic development impacts are expected
from each center through knowledge spillovers and commercialization
efforts. All RCEs will:
- Support
investigator-directed research;
-
Train researchers and other personnel for biodefense
research activities;
- Create
and maintain supporting resources, including scientific
equipment and trained support personnel, for use by
the RCEs and other researchers in the region;
- Emphasize
research focused on development and testing of vaccine,
therapeutic and diagnostic concepts;
- Make
available core facilities to approved investigators
from academia, government, biotech companies and the
pharmaceutical industry; and,
- Provide
facilities and scientific support to first responders
in the event of a national biodefense emergency.
In
addition to the eight RCEs, NIAID is funding two planning
grants to support training, research development and
resource acquisition that could lead to the future establishment
of regional centers.
More
information on all of the grants, including the winning
institutions and their principal investigators, is available
through the agency's website: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/biodefense/
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