Center links Southeast's universities and public health programs.(Brief Article)

2002 SEP 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Leading research institutions and public health programs throughout the Southeast U.S. are joining forces in a new Southeastern Center for Emerging Biologic Threats (SECEBT).

The initiating partners are Emory University's Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center and collaborators within the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Medical College of Georgia, Morehouse School of Medicine, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Other significant partners are expected to come on board over the next few weeks and months.

The Center also will work in close collaboration with state and federal agencies including the state health departments of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and South Carolina; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Veterans Affairs Medical Centers affiliated with the Center's medical school partners. Other collaborators include the Georgia Research Alliance, The Carter Center and Region IV, U.S. Public Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services.

The Southeastern Center for Emerging Biologic Threats is designed as a partnership to combat biologic agents with increasing potential for harm. The war against dangerous biologic agents is fought with knowledge, research and communication. The Center addresses biologic threat agents by consolidating resources in basic research; vaccine development; pathogen surveillance; biomedical engineering; pharmacology; veterinary medicine; food safety; clinical recognition and treatment; and communication and training of scientists and health professionals.

The SECEBT will develop new means of detecting, combating and preventing biologic threats, whether purposefully caused, as from terrorism, or from naturally occurring causes. The Center will use medical and community education to advance applications at the individual and community level.

Emory has committed significant resources to launch the multi-institution consortium, said Michael M.E. Johns, MD, executive vice president for health affairs. This is on top of a major investment by Emory in its own programs related to biologic threat. "At Emory we have a critical mass of resources in infectious diseases, vaccine development, emergency response, public health and other areas, as well as many decades of experience with emerging biologic threats such as anthrax and smallpox," said Johns. "But our longstanding partnerships with the neighboring U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many other organizations have shown us the exponential power of collaboration."

A longstanding partner in that collaboration, Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, vice president for academic health affairs at Emory University and former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is senior advisor to the new Center.