Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Accurate diagnosis is essential for proper medical treatment. Often this is confounded by the lack of or limitation of informative diagnostic assays and tools. Infectious agents rarely found in a given community or country commonly are not screened for as multiple single diagnostic assays are cost-prohibitive and tests for the most likely agent is deemed warranted. Yet it is increasingly clear that as infectious agents appear in new geographic regions and contexts, the medical and public heath communities must improve and modernize the methodologies they utilize. The Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery aims to develop, validate and implement multiplex platforms and predictive strategies that will advance detection of novel pathogens, identify host factors that influence susceptibility of disease and predict effectiveness of drugs and vaccines. We will bring together researchers in the fields of molecular biology, systems biology, genetics, and bioengineering. We will also bring together members of the public health communities and conservation biologists. Together, the investigators in the Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery will advance knowledge and platforms for the detection of agents that are either previously unidentified, known causes of epidemics, or select agents by developing and utilizing systems that could be rapidly redirected for pathogens of any type. RELEVANCE: Diagnostic assays are the primary point for medical treatment. The assays used today by the medical community do not provide the efficiency and multiplexing that are key to rapid diagnosis and accurate treatment. The Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery will apply and develop modern state-of-the-art technologies for the creation of new tools that can be informative to the medical community.