Predicting and Preventing Epidemic to Pandemic Transitions
Focused Research Program
Our Focus
The goal of the Predicting and Preventing Epidemic to Pandemic Transitions FRP, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is to develop a comprehensive strategy and the required science base for predicting and preventing future pandemics. This Phase I project will engage a large interdisciplinary team and a network of collaborators from EcoHealth Alliance to develop models that can identify location hot spots for pathogens that could cause an outbreak, detect disease anomalies in healthcare settings, predict patient outcomes, characterize pathogen spread, and determine best methods for response.
Focused Research Program led by
Yannis Paschalidis: Director, Hariri Institute; Distinguished Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering; Founding Professor, Computing and Data Sciences
Nahid Bhadelia: Founding Director, Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases (CEID); Associate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases
Eric Kolaczyk:Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at McGill University
Diane Joseph-McCarthy: Executive Director, Bioengineering Technology & Entrepreneurship Center (BTEC); Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Jon Epstein, Vice President for Science & Outreach, EcoHealth Alliance
Research Thrusts
1. Predictive Models of Location and Likely Pathogens
This thrust focuses on identifying high-risk viruses and geographic locations at the highest risk of initial spillover and localized spread.
This thrust identifies non-typical cases based on diverse sources of data, ranging from healthcare centers, local case reports, social media, web search queries, cell phone data, and death reports.
3. Pathogen Characterization and Pandemic Prediction
This thrust aims to develop the capability to identify and characterize pathogens that cause local disease clusters and predict whether a local cluster could lead to a pandemic.
This thrust focuses on therapeutics and vaccines, the capacity of global research networks to engage in rapid response, and social mitigation strategies.
