Newswise — As part of a new national bioterrorism defense initiative, a research team led by has been awarded an $18.8 million research grant to develop a web-based portal and a set of computational and analytical tools for researchers and public health officials to model emerging infectious diseases and appropriate public health responses.
The initiative, called MIDAS, will develop computer-modeling techniques to analyze and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, whether they occur naturally, or are released intentionally in a bioterrorist attack. MIDAS (an acronym for Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study) is sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a part of the National Institutes of Health that has a strong interest in bioinformatics and computational biology.
The goal of the initiative is to provide policymakers, public health officials and others within the scientific community with the analytical tools and computer models required to respond effectively to infectious disease outbreaks.
RTI International, as the core informatics group, will lead a diverse group of experts from SAS, IBM and Duke and Emory universities, who will develop a wide array of computational and analytic tools and data sources tailor-made to model emerging infectious diseases and public health responses.
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded a total of $28 million over five years to support the initiative. Three grants totaling $9.5 million over five years (averaging more than $640,000 each per grant for the first year), were awarded to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Los Alamos National Laboratory and Emory University to support the creation of mathematical models to study various aspects of infectious disease epidemics and community responses.
The team led by RTI was awarded $18.8 million over five years ($3 million for the first year) to function as the core informatics group for MIDAS, developing a central web-based portal to organize information from the other three groups. In doing so, RTI will develop informatics tools to integrate and mine information from databases that have never been jointly analyzed before. The team also will develop user-friendly computer modeling tools for the broader scientific community, policy makers and public health officials to use to simulate epidemics and response strategies.
The network of MIDAS scientists will be guided by a steering committee of investigators with broad expertise in modeling, infectious diseases and public health. This committee will establish policies for the network, set standards for data management, evaluate progress and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas within and beyond the MIDAS network.
"MIDAS is designed not only to help prepare us for infectious disease crises, but also to be an active part of the response," said National Institute of General Medical Sciences Director Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D. "In the case of a national medical emergency, MIDAS scientists can redirect their work to help government officials quickly determine the best way to deal with the epidemic. The modeling tools will also advance our ability to study complex systems with many interacting parts, which is essential to truly understand biological processes."
About RTI International
RTI International is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to conducting research that improves the human condition. With a staff of more than 2,300 people, RTI offers innovative research and development and a full spectrum of multidisciplinary services in health and pharmaceuticals, advanced technology, survey and statistics, education and training, economic and social development, and the environment.
About Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics uses computers to solve information problems in the life sciences by creating extensive electronic databases on genomes and protein sequences. RTI International applies its expertise in bioinformatics research to clinical trials; natural history studies of disease progression; national and international epidemiological research on the incidence, prevalence, risk factors, and causes of diseases; and health promotion and disease prevention research. RTI also is the repository the Genome Database (http://www.gdb.org/), a unique collection confirmed information about human genes.
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