NIAID allocated $208 million to fight emerging infectious diseases from bioterrorism

exploratory grants awarded in 2007. The current phase is a substantially larger effort that addresses key questions related to how the immune system responds to viruses.

IMVC investigators will use animal models and conduct studies in people to understand all aspects of the immune response to viruses, including early immune responses (innate, or inborn, immunity) and antibody and immune cell memory responses that protect against repeat infections (adaptive immunity). Since cells of mucosal tissue comprise the primary barrier to many viruses, mucosal immunity in the gut or lungs also will be studied.

Some specific IMVC projects include studying how the immune response in the brain combats rabies virus infection; identifying immune markers that correlate with surviving Ebola infection; and finding new drugs to treat viral infections.

The following 14 investigators have been awarded a total of approximately $78 million over the next five years under the IMVC program:

Glen Barber, Ph.D., University of Miami School of Medicine

Thomas Braciale, M.D., Ph.D., University Of Virginia, Charlottesville

David Brooks, Ph.D., University of California Los Angeles

Michael Gale, Ph.D., University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle

Douglas Hooper, Ph.D., Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia

Curt Horvath, Ph.D., Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.

Jae Jung, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Robert Mason, M.D., National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver

Andrew Mellor, Ph.D., Medical College of Georgia, Augusta

Elke Muehlberger, Ph.D., Boston University School of Medicine

Luis Sigal, Ph.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia

E. John Wherry, Ph.D., The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia

Yiping Yang, M.D., Ph.D., Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.

Allan Zajac, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham

The following four awardees have received Recovery Act funding and will participate in the IMVC program for two years:

Joan Durbin, M.D., Children’s Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio

Emilio Flano, Ph.D., Children’s Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio

Gregg Milligan, Ph.D., University of Texas Med. Branch, Galveston

Thomas Moran, Ph.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York

“Developing vaccines and treatments for emerging pathogens continues to be a priority for NIAID,” says Daniel Rotrosen, M.D., director of the NIAID Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation. “The CCHI and IMVC programs will foster collaboration among many talented investigators working toward the common goal of understanding the human immune response to infectious diseases and developing more effective measures to prevent and treat infection.”

NIAID conducts and supports research — at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide — to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — the Nation’s Medical Research Agency —  includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.