Emory, UGA get $32 million to prepare U.S. for flu crisis
BYLINE: GAYLE WHITE; Staff
Emory University's School of Medicine --- working with the University of Georgia's veterinary school --- has received a $32.8 million contract to help the United States prepare for a possible flu pandemic.
The National Institutes of Health announced the award Monday as part of a plan that creates six new Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance.
"The threat of an influenza pandemic is a major source of concern for the public health community," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Their work, he said, will "generate the information and tools necessary to better prepare and respond to a pandemic situation."
The seven-year contract is the latest announcement to elevate Emory's reputation regionally, nationally and internationally.
Earlier this year, Emory announced establishment of a new Global Health Institute, whose programs include an international network of public health agencies funded with a $20 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Last fall, the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation gave the school $261.5 million to expand and improve its outpatient clinics. And in 2005, the university announced that it would receive $525 million in royalties for an AIDS drug developed by three of its researchers in the largest known intellectual property deal involving a U.S. university.
Outside the medical realm, the university recently welcomed the Dalai Lama as a presidential distinguished professor. In February, Salman Rushdie, one of the world's best known essayists and writers of contemporary literature, arrived for a stint on campus after donating his papers to the university.
Emory is one of six institutions designated as national influenza centers, which will expand and improve surveillance of seasonal as well as avian flu, both in the U.S. and internationally. The others are St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis; Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City; and the University of Rochester in New York.
Emory's main role will be to determine how influenza viruses mutate to infect different species, especially humans. That is critical in dealing with bird flu, said Dr. Richard Compans, chairman of the department of microbiology and immunology at Emory and executive director of the new center. Bird flu is a pandemic in birds only; most humans who have been infected have had close contact with birds.
"Nobody really knows the likelihood that it will be able to mutate and spread from person to person," said Compans. "What we do know is that if that does happen, it's likely to be a very serious global pandemic of disease. The avian virus appears to cause a severe infection in the case of people who have acquired it from birds."
As of March 29, the World Health Organization had recorded 285 lab-confirmed cases of avian flu in humans in 12 countries. Of those, 170 died.
Compans, who came to Emory in 1992, said Emory will also research human response to different forms of vaccine for seasonal flu.
He said he does not know whether the center will have new physical quarters on campus.
The contract may help Emory attract other researchers, Compans said. And, the center will train new investigators.
A relationship with the University of Georgia was "an important component" in acquiring the National Institutes of Health contract, Compans said.
UGA "has a facility that is well suited to working with highly pathogenic viruses in animals," he said.
UGA veterinary medicine professor Ralph Tripp will head the UGA portion of the work, to be funded with $7.4 million of the $32.8 million. UGA scientists will work on the animal end of the spectrum, looking at how viruses change as they are transmitted among different species.
"Threats such as avian influenza clearly demonstrate the link between animal health and human health," said Sheila Allen, dean of the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine.
UGA is already home to the Southeastern Poultry Research Laboratory, which conducts research on bird flu through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Emory-UGA relationship is part of a network fostered through the Georgia Research Alliance, which made a $2.5 million commitment over five years in support of the new flu center.
The alliance, a not-for-profit network of businesses, universities and state government agencies, recruited several of the scientists involved in the new influenza center.
"This is exactly what the Georgia Research Alliance was set up to bring to bear," said alliance President Michael Cassidy. "It's because we have the best people in our institutions that we can compete as a state."