MIDAS Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics

描述（由申请人提供）：哈佛公共卫生学院（HSPH）的传染病动力学中心（CCDD）将作为一个国家和国际研究、教学中心，与公共卫生决策者和传染病建模和流行病学的其他利益相关者进行外联。该中心将扩大和加强传染病流行病学和健康决策科学的蓬勃发展的培训计划，同时加强哈佛大学和周边地区的联系，吸引生物信息学家，生物统计学家，进化生物学家和其他与传染病建模和数据分析相关的活动。实质性研究将侧重于抗菌素耐药性、传染病季节性以及围绕稀缺控制措施分配的广泛政策决策领域。我们还将开发新的方法，强调用于分析新出现的流行病和指导控制措施以优化其有效性的工具，以及使用遗传和最终基因组序列数据来跟踪流行病和检测自然选择对病原体种群的影响。该中心将开展许多活动，使其资源、人员和方法广泛可用，并与公共卫生专业人员、决策者和其他人保持富有成效的互动。包括流行病分析“仪表板”在内的软件将与美国和香港的公共卫生合作伙伴合作开发。传染病建模短期课程将设计和提供每年在几个大陆的轮换地点;这门课程的材料和一个新的课程传染病统计（将在HSPH开发）将通过网络提供。关于公共卫生重要性主题的年度研讨会将邀请学术和决策专家参加。将为科学记者举办教育活动。将为CDC和其他科学家设立短期访问奖学金，以促进合作，并为少数民族服务机构（MSI）的教职员工设立一个学期的休假。还将开展更多的活动，向弱势群体成员伸出援手，包括一个“大使”方案和由大学配套资金资助的硕士研究生项目。将大力整合研究、外联和教学职能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics (CCDD) at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) will serve as a national and international center for research, teaching, and outreach to public health decision makers and other stakeholders in infectious disease modeling and epidemiology. The Center will expand and augment thriving training programs in infectious disease epidemiology and health decision science while strengthening connections within Harvard University and the surrounding area to draw in bioinformaticians, biostatisticians, evolutionary biologists, and others to activities related to infectious disease modeling and data analysis. Substantive research will focus on antimicrobial resistance, communicable disease seasonality, and the broad area of policy decisions around the allocation of scarce control measures. We will also develop novel methodology, emphasizing tools for analyzing emerging epidemics and directing control measures to optimize their effectiveness, as well as on the use of genetic and ultimately genome sequence data to track epidemics and to detect the effects of natural selection on pathogen populations. The Center will have numerous activities to make its resources, people, and methods widely available and to maintain productive interactions with public health professionals, decision makers and others. Software, including an epidemic analysis "dashboard," will be developed in partnership with public health collaborators from the US and Hong Kong. A short course in infectious disease modeling will be designed and offered annually at rotating sites on several continents; materials for this course and for a novel course on infectious disease statistics (to be developed at HSPH) will be made available by web. An annual symposium on a topic of public health importance will host academic and policymaking experts. Educational activities for science journalists will be set up. Short-term visiting fellowships for CDC and other scientists will be set up to facilitate collaborations, and a semester sabbatical for a faculty member from a minority serving institution (MSI) will be set up. Additional activities for outreach to disadvantaged group members will occur, including an "ambassador" program and funded masters studentships with matching university funds. Intensive efforts will be made to integrate research, outreach, and teaching functions.