GALVESTON, Texas – The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is in the unique position to have been
awarded funding to launch 2 of the 10 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-supported Centers for
Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID). The Coordinating Research on Emerging Arboviral Threats
Encompassing the Neotropics (CREATE-NEO) center (1 U01 AI151807-01) led by Dr. Nikos Vasilakis and the West African
Center of Emerging Infectious Diseases (WAC-EID; 1 U01 AI151801-01) led by Dr. Scott Weaver will coordinate efforts
with the other NIAID funded centers around the globe where emerging and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks are
likely to occur. Multidisciplinary teams of investigators will conduct pathogen/host/vector surveillance, study
pathogen transmission, pathogenesis and immunologic responses in the host, and will develop reagents and diagnostic
assays for improved detection for important emerging pathogens and their vectors. For more information, visit: https://creid-network.org/.
The CREATE-NEO center will integrate surveillance of mosquito-borne viruses, also called arboviruses, across Central
and South America with predictive modeling in order to better anticipate and counter emergence of arboviral
diseases. The information gained from the CREATE-NEO center will forewarn local, national and global public health
agencies of arboviruses like yellow fever, chikungunya, and dengue, within Central and South America that pose
particularly high risk of transmission among people, and/or international spread. The center would provide important
information about emerging diseases that could become a threat to the United States.
“Our established network of partnerships at the core of CREATE-NEO has been on the forefront of studies
understanding the mechanisms of arbovirus emergence and transmission for the last 20 years.” said Nikos
Vasilakis, UTMB professor in the department of Pathology and CREATE-NEO principal investigator. “We will also
build local capacity to detect, predict and respond to emerging arboviruses at their point of origin, thereby
maximizing the potential to avert full-blown emergence, and critically, be able to quickly redirect our efforts to
address any emerging diseases.”
Although emerging infectious diseases have been recognized for decades, the last 15 years have been marked by the
unprecedented emergence of several devastating epidemics of animal- and insect-borne RNA viral diseases, many of
which originated in Africa.
The WAC-EID will focus on the surveillance of humans, mosquitoes, ticks and wild animals that are likely hosts of RNA
viral diseases, including chikungunya, Zika, yellow fever, Ebola, Lassa, Nipah, Hendra, SARS-2 and MERS
coronaviruses. The center will address critical gaps in understanding how viruses emerge and will improve
capabilities for responding to outbreaks through field studies of animal-to-human viral emergence, circulation, and
disease transmission. In addition, clinical studies of people exposed to these viruses will improve diagnostics and
increase experts’ understanding of the resulting illnesses. The center may also identify new emerging viruses
and produce risk maps for human exposure.
“The strengthening of existing collaborations between UTMB and our partners in Senegal, Sierra Leone and
Nigeria, along with biosafety and biosecurity training and improved diagnostics, will support a West African network
of emerging viral disease laboratories and hospitals better prepared to respond quickly and effectively to future
outbreaks,” said Scott Weaver, director of the UTMB Institute for Human Infections and Immunity and WAC-EID
principal investigator. “As increases in the rates of global travel, urban expansion, deforestation and global
climate change all elevate the risk of further spread of these viruses throughout the world, the new CREID centers
will enable experts to gain a better understanding of the risks for local and international disease spread and
improve the ability to effectively quell viral spread.”