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The United World Antiviral Research Network (UWARN) at the University of Washington is collaborating with partners in Brazil, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, and Taiwan to focus on emerging and re-emerging arboviruses as well as COVID. UWARN laboratories will study high-burden viral pathogens such as Zika, dengue, and chikungunya, and emerging and re-emerging flavi-, alpha-, and bunyaviruses including Mayaro, Usutu, Rift Valley fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and Oropouche. The global public health emergency caused by Zika virus in 2014-2016 highlighted several important gaps in scientific knowledge regarding arboviruses. These included problems with non-specific diagnostics, the absence of effective antiviral vaccines and therapeutics, and limited understanding of the development of resulting medical conditions such as microcephaly. UWARN is fully equipped to overcome previous scientific gaps for the next arboviral or really an emerging infectious diseases emergency. The UWARN partnership will combine investigations into arboviral natural immune responses, the development of neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies, and the development of de novo engineered arboviral detection protein systems to better understand disease development, develop more specific diagnostics, and downstream therapeutics. UWARN is also prepared to detect emerging viruses in human and animal populations as well as vectors using a One Health approach.

This Research Center is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1U01AI151698