MIDAS Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics

描述（由申请人提供）：哈佛大学公共卫生学院传染病动力学中心（CCDD）将作为传染病建模和流行病学领域公共卫生决策者和其他利益相关者的研究、教学和外展的国家和国际中心。该中心将扩大和加强传染病流行病学和健康决策科学方面的培训项目，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、进化生物学家等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和指导控制措施以优化其效力的工具，以及利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，以广泛提供其资源、人员和方法，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“仪表盘”在内的软件将与来自美国和香港的公共卫生合作者合作开发。每年将在几大洲的轮流地点设计和开设传染病建模短期课程；本课程和传染病统计新课程（将由HSPH开发）的材料将通过网络提供。将举办一次关于公共卫生重要性主题的年度研讨会，邀请学术和决策专家参加。建立科学记者教育活动。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）的教员设立一个学期的休假。为帮助弱势群体成员，还将开展其他活动，包括“大使”计划和与大学基金相匹配的硕士奖学金。将大力整合研究、推广和教学功能。

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.