New Regional Centers for Biodefense Research Awards Total $350M

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/