Judd F. Hultquist, PhD Director, Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens Program Associate Director, Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
“Our goal is to promote cutting-edge clinical, translational, and basic research to better understand and combat emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats.”
There has never been a more important time to study infectious diseases. The combined influences of climate change, urbanization, and globalization have dramatically escalated the emergence and re-emergence of deadly pathogens in recent years. While this new reality has been most dramatically underscored by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this last decade has also witnessed outbreaks of Ebola virus, Zika virus, monkeypox virus, and others in addition to the high burden that endemic pathogens place on communities throughout the world. It is therefore imperative that researchers have access to the resources and expertise needed to rapidly answer critical questions in biomedical, epidemiological, and public health research. The Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens Program was created to help meet this critical need and foster a rich environment for infectious disease research at Northwestern University. Our goal is to promote cutting-edge clinical, translational, and basic research to better understand and combat emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats. To accomplish this, the EREPP facilitates interactions between multi-disciplinary groups of talented investigators, provides pilot funding to promote new collaborations and invest in local infrastructure, and organizes seminars to engage and unite the local research community.
Emerging and re-emerging pathogens have broad reaching impacts, but the EREPP has two major focus areas of study: newly pandemic pathogens and antimicrobial resistant organisms. As the COVID-19 pandemic has poignantly demonstrated, the timely provision of data is critical to inform best practices in clinical care and public health. EREPP investigators were uniquely poised and empowered to contribute to our understanding of this disease at multiple levels, from characterizing the genomic evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, to identifying risk factors for severe outcomes, to mapping routes of transmission in hospital and educational settings, to assessing long-term complications from infection. As new pandemic pathogens emerge, the EREPP seeks to support the rapid adaptation of local infrastructure and the timely collection of impactful data. As pathogenic agents are investigated and treatments are developed, an equally critical and ongoing issue is the evolution and spread of antimicrobial resistant organisms. The failure of conventional antiviral or antibiotic therapies to adequately inhibit these organisms severely limits the ability of physicians to treat their patients. EREPP researchers are studying new methods to predict antimicrobial resistance, to understand the mechanisms by which it occurs, and to define how it spreads. Through these efforts, the EREPP seeks to limit the burden of morbidity and mortality caused by multidrug-resistant organisms.
By facilitating the study of emerging and re-emerging infectious threats, it is my hope that the EREPP can leverage the considerable strengths of Northwestern University to place it at the forefront of infectious disease research. Through this strategic investment, we will not only be working to build a healthier local and global community, but also working to safeguard our society against future pandemic threats.