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Working with dangerous bugs

Nature Immunology volume 5, pages 765–767 (2004)Cite this article

As part of the national effort in the US to protect civilians from bioterrorist attacks, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) was charged with the development of diverse research resources. The NIAID Resources for Biodefense Research program is forging new collaborations between immunologists and infectious disease experts and is reinvigorating research in the general area of immune protection against pathogenic infection.

Many new research and product development grants and contracts were awarded by the NIAID to both academic and commercial laboratories in 2003. Funded projects range from basic studies in areas such as innate immunity and microbial pathogenesis to clinical trials of new vaccine candidates. Training programs and small business grants targeting biodefense research were also expanded. Given the comprehensive nature of this research effort, it is clear that its benefits will extend beyond the prevention of bioterrorism to affect public health in geographical areas where category A, B or C pathogens are naturally endemic, are recently emergent or are re-emerging in the human population. Generalizable advances such as new vaccine platforms, drug targets, antigen-nonspecific immunotherapies and diagnostic tools will also lead to improvements in the treatment or prevention of immune-mediated and inflammatory diseases. These efforts, then, should support a broad spectrum of biomedical applications.

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Figure 1: Resources for biodefense research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health,

    Helen Quill & Maria Giovanni

  2. Bethesda, 20892, Maryland, USA

    Helen Quill & Maria Giovanni

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  1. Helen Quill
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  2. Maria Giovanni
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Quill, H., Giovanni, M. Working with dangerous bugs. Nat Immunol 5, 765–767 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0804-765

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