Public healthNIAID allocated $208 million to fight emerging infectious diseases from bioterrorism
Using its own research funds, augmented by stimulus package money, NIH awarded $208 million to two programs that support research better to understand the human immune response to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including those that may be introduced into a community through acts of bioterrorism
NIAID also has received approximately $21 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to supplement these two programs and fund some additional researchers. This funding is part of the $5 billion awarded by NIH in FY 2009 for research projects under the Recovery Act.
The long-term goal of the CCHI and IMVC programs is to identify new vaccines and drug targets. “A better understanding of how the human immune system responds to these infections should provide new approaches for developing prevention tools and therapeutics,” says Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of
The CCHI program, established in 2003, focuses on basic research and preclinical research of potential benefit to humans. CCHI research will include developing new vaccines to protect against infectious diseases such as influenza, dengue fever, anthrax and hepatitis C; understanding how immune protection is achieved; and determining how harmless microorganisms in the lungs, intestines and other mucosal surfaces protect against harmful microbes that enter the body through these sites.
The following eight investigators have been awarded a total of approximately $130 million over the next five years under the CCHI program:
Rafi Ahmed, Ph.D., Emory University, Atlanta
Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D., Baylor Research Institute, Dallas
Raymond Chung, M.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
Kenneth Coggeshall, Ph.D., Okalahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City
Mark Davis, Ph.D., Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
Anne de Groot, M.D., University of Rhode Island, Providence
Alan Rothman, M.D., University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester
Marcelo Sztein, M.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore
The following investigator has received two-year funding through the Recovery Act to participate in the CCHI program:
Donald Burke, M.D., University of Pittsburgh
The following investigators have received one year of supplemental Recovery Act funding in addition to their CCHI program funding:
Rafi Ahmed, Ph.D., Emory University, Atlanta
Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D., Baylor Research Institute, Dallas
Mark Davis, Ph.D., Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
The IMVC program builds on a set of
