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The Center for Research in Emerging Infectious Disease-Epidemiology, Surveillance, Pathogenesis (CREID-ESP) at Washington University in St. Louis will focus on surveillance of key disease symptoms such as respiratory disease, inflammation of the brain, and fever of unknown origin, that have frequently been observed in association with emerging viruses in the past few decades. Surveillance of animal and insect vectors will also be performed to identify origin points and define transmission patterns associated with novel emerging viruses. The Center includes four international surveillance sites located in China, Hong Kong, Nepal, and Ethiopia. These sites have an established history of studying viral emergence or possess the high capability to monitor potential future events. The Center will initially prioritize research efforts on Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and SARS-CoV-2 research. In addition to conducting virus surveillance, the Center will develop new substances to carry out lab and diagnostic tests to characterize virus epidemiology and pathogenic potential. These efforts will establish and validate the critical infrastructure necessary to respond to new emerging infectious diseases. In the event of a new outbreak, efforts will be reprioritized, in consultation with NIAID, to focus on response to the new emerging threat. To achieve these goals, the Center has assembled a unique, international team with complementary expertise in public health, disease surveillance, virus discovery, genomics, bioinformatics, virology, molecular biology, immunology, diagnostic development, and animal model development.

This Research Center is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01AI151810

• Contact:
• David Wang, PI, davewang@wustl.edu