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The CREID
Network
Vol. 2, Issue 1 | January 2024

Dedicated to addressing critical research areas in emerging infectious diseases and development of regional scientific expertise and research capacity.
Image caption: 2023 CREID Pilot Program Awardees Maria Martin, PhD and Carina Sen, MSc (WAC-EID with CREATE-NEO), Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas (Argentina), working in the field processing specimens. 

CREID Network Updates


The Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) Network is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and is comprised of 10 Research Centers and 1 Coordinating Center.
 

CREID Network Overview


The CREID Network was established by NIH/NIAID in August 2020 with the goal to address research gaps in emerging infectious diseases and develop regional emerging Infectious disease scientific expertise and research capacity. Click on the image to learn more about the CREID Network.
 

A Global Network of Networks

 


Click on the image to visit the CREID website for more information about each Research Center. Links to each Research Center website can be found at the bottom of the newsletter.

CREID Network Global Presence

 




Click on the image to see the interactive map on the CREID website for more information.

Network by the Numbers


Click on the image to learn more about the research studies being conducted within the CREID Network.

CREID Network Impact



The creation of the NIAID-funded CREID Network offers an opportunity to generate knowledge, methods, and tools that can be implemented to better detect pathogen emergence around the globe.
 
One example of this is the RNA Extraction and Storage (RNAES) Project, led by Dr. Jesse Waggoner, Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, and a member of the A2CARES Research Center. The RNAES Project highlights some of A2CARES' cutting-edge efforts to enhance the quality, storage, and processing of RNA samples collected in remote locations. The project has now advanced to version 2.0, which accommodates whole blood samples and utilizes 3D printed cartridges. This field-deployable method was designed to be created with off-the-shelf, low-cost items readily available to most Network research and field-collection sites. Currently, the project is undergoing trials in Asuncion, Paraguay and Karachi, Pakistan, with plans for expansion to Putumayo, Ecuador soon.
 
Critical to the utility of this RNA extraction and storage method for CREID, and the greater emerging infectious diseases (EID) community, is to validate that the procedure can inactivate a range of Network-relevant pandemic viruses or appropriate family-level prototype viruses. Removing the need for sample processing in a high-containment laboratory will greatly expand the utilities of these methods.
 
Through an NIH funding supplement and in collaboration with the CREID Coordinating Center (RTI and Duke University) the RNAES Project has been expanded to provide kits and mobile lab backpacks to Research Centers across the CREID Network, and to validate the RNAES kit for inactivation of prototype pathogens across six pandemic potential viral families and five sample matrices.  Validation studies are being run in the NIAID-constructed Duke Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (CREID CC). 

A2CARES Award Number: U01AI151788; CREID CC Award Number: U01AI151378

Stakeholder News


The CREID Network collaborates with a wide variety of external stakeholders including from the US Government, foreign governments, multilateral institutions such as the World Health Organization, foundations and nonprofits, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the private sector. If you are interested in exploring a collaboration with the CREID Network, please contact info@creid-network.org
 

CEPI is a CREID Network stakeholder and a CEPI representative sits on the CREID Network External Advisory Committee. 

CEPI and the University of Oxford launch project to develop arenavirus vaccines

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the University of Oxford announced in November the launch of a new project to initiate early development of prototype vaccines against the Junín virus, selected as an exemplar of the Arenavirus family which is responsible for multiple deadly haemorrhagic fevers with epidemic and pandemic potential. The data and materials generated by this project could give the world a head start in rapidly developing safe and effective vaccines against Arenaviruses within 100 days of their identification, potentially stopping a future pandemic in its tracks.
 

Research Center Updates


The January 2024 newsletter features 3 of the CREID Research Centers: A2CARES, CREID-ESP, and WARN-ID. In addition to working in the US, these 3 Research Centers work in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, and United Kingdom (A2CARES); Ethiopia, Hong Kong, and Nepal (CREID-ESP); and Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone (WARN-ID). 

Please see more information about each of the 10 Research Centers at the CREID Network website.

 

Hospital San Miguel. Vicky Nipaz, an A2CARES technician, transporting samples in liquid nitrogen.

A2CARES


Hospital San Miguel in Puerto Carmen, Putumayo has been officially accepted as a new A2CARES research site in Ecuador. This NGO hospital will play a crucial role in A2CARES' efforts to monitor arboviral outbreaks and provide follow-up care of cases in one of Ecuador's most remote areas, situated in the Northern Amazon region near the Colombian border.

Award Number U01AI151788 

CREID-ESP


CREID-ESP authors analyzed MERS-CoV sequences and identified an amino acid substitution L232F in nsp6 that repeatedly occurs in human MERS-CoV that is rarely present in camel MERS-CoV genomes. Results suggest this may be an adaptive mutation associated with zoonotic transmission of MERS-CoV.

Award Number U01AI151810 


The CREID-ESP team ‘flagging’ for ticks.

Josh Levy and Alhaji analyze genomic wastewater surveillance data at Redeemers University in Nigeria using the Freya software developed by the Andersen Lab at Scripps Research.

WARN-ID


WARN-ID is continuing to work within the CREID Network to equip local researchers and bolster regional preparedness against infectious threats. Two pillars of WARN-ID’s efforts to strengthen infectious disease research systems globally are to provide robust training programs and targeted technology transfer. In the past year, WARN-ID focused on training young scientists on cutting-edge technologies and bioinformatics tools to investigate Mpox, SARS-CoV-2, cytomegalovirus, malaria, and more.

Award Number U01AI151812

A2CARES
CREATE-NEO
CREID-ECA
CREID-ESP
EpiCenter
EID-SEARCH
PICREID
UWARN
WAC-EID
WARN-ID
CREID Coordinating Center * info@creid-network.org * creid-network.org

Copyright © 2024, CREID Coordinating Center, all rights reserved.


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