Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research

描述（由申请人提供）：夏威夷大学马诺阿分校位于太平洋中部符合idea - a资格的最西端州，距离北美和大洋洲主要岛屿国家约4,000公里，凭借其地理位置和与亚太地区各机构的紧密联系，具有监测新发现和重新出现的传染病的出现和传播的战略地位。在最初的五年期间，COBRE提供的资金使太平洋新发传染病研究中心得以建立，这是一个多学科卓越中心，负责研究和培训具有区域关注和全球重要性的新发、新出现和再出现的微生物威胁。正在要求重新提供COBRE资金，以加强COBRE中心并将其转变为卓越的转化科学中心，为新出现的传染病开发改进的诊断、治疗和干预措施。COBRE的活动搬迁到新建的国家资助的20万平方英尺的生物科学大楼的最先进的实验室空间中，通过在UH-Manoa创建传染病研究的学术基地，已经发生了翻天覆地的变化。在本赠款期间，主流供资约为1 750万美元，用于非艾滋病毒/艾滋病传染病的研究和培训，远远超过最初的预期。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Located in the westernmost IDeA-eligible state in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, approximately 4,000 km from North America and the major island nations of Oceania, the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH-Manoa) is strategically positioned to monitor the emergence and spread of newly recognized and reemerging infectious diseases, by virtue of its geographic proximity and strong ties to institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. COBRE funding during the initial five-year period has allowed the establishment of the Pacific Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, a multidisciplinary center of excellence for research and training on new, emerging and re-emerging microbial threats of regional concern and global importance. Renewed COBRE funding is being requested to strengthen and transform the COBRE Center into a translational science center of excellence for developing improved diagnostics, therapeutics and interventions for emerging infectious diseases. The relocation of COBRE activities into state-of-the-art laboratory space in a newly constructed, State-financed 200,000-square-foot BioSciences Building has exacted a sea change by creating an academic home for infectious diseases research at UH-Manoa. The current grant period has witnessed mainstream funding of approximately $17.5 million for non-HIV/AIDS infectious diseases research and training, far exceeding original expectations. In this competitive continuation resubmission, four promising junior and mid-career faculty have been selected for COBRE support to conduct hypothesis-driven research projects that have been rated as excellent to outstanding with a high likelihood of extramural funding. Importantly, strong leadership and dedicated Mentors, Collaborators and External Advisors have been identified, and complementary technical cores in Bioinformatics, BSL-3/ABSL-3 Biocontainment and Molecular and Cellular Immunology will be enhanced, to ensure that the COBRE Investigators achieve research independence during the grant period. Furthermore, an institutional commitment to recruit four additional tenure-track faculty in tropical infectious diseases and to subsidize core facilities will help to solidify the critical mass of investigators for this high-priority research area, as well as to sustain this multidisciplinary center for UH-Manoa and the State of Hawaii during and beyond the new grant period. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE (provided by applicant): Asia is generally considered as the geographic birthplace of numerous recently identified emerging infectious diseases, nearly all of which are transmitted to humans by either mosquitoes or microbes jumping from their reservoir hosts. New knowledge about these disease-causing viruses and bacteria will lead to improved rapid diagnostic tests, more effective treatments and affordable preventive vaccines.