Pathogen Surveillance and Discovery
We have entered a new era of pathogen discovery. Equipped with new tools and increasingly dynamic, global partnerships between clinicians, basic scientists and epidemiologists, the face of public health has changed. We have the potential to reduce the morbidity and mortality of infectious diseases by rapidly identifying and responding to known and novel infectious agents. Indeed, surveillance of animals and humans in “hot spots” for infectious disease emergence may enable containment of virulent pathogens before they threaten the global community. Had such tools been implemented in the 1970s, we might have abrogated the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Diagnostic tools are the centerpieces of public health efforts to stem the spread of disease. Classic models for disease prevention involve identifying pathogens, cataloging infections, and helping the public protect itself from vectors of disease. This is the traditional understanding of surveillance. The Center for Infection and Immunity works with determination to bolster the arsenal of tools for effective disease control by pioneering the development of diagnostic tools using state-of-the-art databases, mathematic models, laboratory science and engineering methods.
Databases, sample collection, and models for pathogenesis are now sufficiently powerful that we are poised to continue an accelerated rate of discovering novel pathogens and implicating both new and known microbes in acute and chronic illness. As part of a staged strategy for pathogen surveillance and discovery, the CII mines daily through thousands of samples from around the world investigating the role of pathogens in diseases of unknown cause. As this work proceeds we envision new opportunities for the development of vaccines and drugs to prevent or ameliorate the burden of disease.
Patients’ symptoms are rarely so specific as to direct therapy toward a single agent. Absent specific information inappropriate drugs may be used resulting in treatment failure, toxicity, or wasted resources. Until recently, clinicians had to request individual tests for a potential pathogen—a process that was expensive, time consuming, long and associated with the risk of not finding a match. Multiplex assays—tests that include many targets—allow microbiologists to simultaneously investigate thousands of possibilities, rapidly, and at low cost. In instances where these assays fail it is now possible to use genetic methods to screen for the “entire tree of life”—bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. CII investigators are validating and perfecting the technologies with an eye towards easing use and reducing costs to make these tools more widely available and increase their use—helping humanity to make the world a safer and better-understood place to live.
Technology Development
Global Pathome Initiative |
