Since the terrorist attacks in 2001, the United States
government has focused on the preparation for a bioterror attack or
other public health crisis.

In response to biodefense research, the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services announced Thursday, Sept. 4, that
Washington University School of Medicine and Saint Louis
University’s School of Medicine will be part of a
multi-institutional Midwest Regional Center for Excellence in
Biodefense and Emerging Infections Diseases Research (MRCE).

The Midwest center is funded over a five-year period by a $35
million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases. Over $350 million will be funded to a total of eight
research centers throughout the country.

Founding members of MRCE include Case Western Reserve
University, University of Missouri-Columbia, Washington University
and the Midwest research Institute of Kansas City.

The Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research
provides a coordinated and comprehensive mechanism to support the
research that will lead to new and improved therapies, vaccines and
diagnostics. Such improvements will protect citizens of the United
States and the world against the threat of bioterrorism and other
emerging–and re-emerging–diseases.

MCRE’s mission is to support basic and transitional research in
critical areas of biodefense and emerging infectious diseases
throughout the Midwest.

“We see the MRCE as a tremendous opportunity for the region to
take the lead in this field and hope it will provide a framework to
facilitate collaborative research in biodefense and emerging
infectious diseases between academia and industry,” stated Samuel
L. Stanley, Jr., M.D., director of the MCRE and professor of
medicine at Washington University.

MRCE plans to develop resources needed in the event of a
bioterrorism attack.

The center will concentrate on expanding current research
efforts in biodefense, identifying new areas of need in the field
and expanding facilities to support biodefense research.

Scientists hope to improve an area’s disaster preparedness by
establishing a communication among communities, academic medical
centers and state and local health agencies.

The center will initially focus on researching pox viruses,
which include smallpox. Researchers are hoping to modernize the
vaccines by making them safer and more effective.

This grant “will allow us to continue exciting research is the
development of safe and effective vaccines to assist in the
national biodefense effort,” stated Robert Belshe, M.D., associate
director of the MCRE and the director of the Center for Vaccine
Development.

“It is a recognition of the significant accomplishments of these
four institutions in basic and clinical research–research that
could play a major part in protecting Americans against the
bioterrorism threat,” Belshe said.