Tools to study infectious diseases have become increasingly powerful over the past 50 years, allowing us to monitor, manage, and manipulate microbes in unprecedented ways. Despite this, infections continue to emerge and re-emerge at an alarming rate. The virus causing COVID-19 is the most recent and dramatic example, but many other new microbes have surfaced over the past decades to inflict suffering on mankind. In addition, familiar pathogens, once thought to be vanquished, have frequently re-appeared in more aggressive and antibiotic-resistant forms. The goal of EREPP is to foster, nurture, and synergize research at the Feinberg School of Medicine aimed at better understanding and treating these infections.