MIDAS Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics

描述(由申请人提供)：哈佛大学公共卫生学院(HSPH)传染病动力学中心(CCDD)将作为一个全国性和国际性的研究、教学和推广中心，面向传染病建模和流行病学方面的公共卫生决策者和其他利益相关者。该中心将扩大和加强在传染病流行病学和健康决策科学方面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，以吸引生物信息学家、生物统计学家、进化生物学家和其他人参与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、传染病的季节性，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，强调分析新出现的流行病的工具和指导控制措施以优化其有效性，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。该中心将开展大量活动，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。包括疫情分析“仪表盘”在内的软件将与来自美国和香港的公共卫生合作伙伴合作开发。每年将在几个大洲的轮换地点设计和开设传染病建模短期课程；将在网上提供这一课程和新的传染病统计课程(将在卫生和公众服务部开发)的材料。一年一度的公共卫生重要主题研讨会将邀请学术和政策制定专家参加。将设立科学记者教育活动。将为疾控中心和其他科学家设立短期访问奖学金，以促进合作，并将为少数族裔服务机构(MSI)的一名教员设立一个学期的休假。还将开展与弱势群体成员接触的其他活动，包括“大使”计划和用等额大学资金资助的硕士研究生奖学金。加强研究、推广和教学功能的整合。

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.