Skip to main content
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Turning Discovery into Health
  • Virtual Tour
  • En Español

Site Menu

  • Home
  • Health Information
    • Health Care Providers & Facilities
    • Health Info Lines
    • HealthCare.gov
    • Science Education Resources
    • NIH Clinical Research Trials and You
    • Talking to Your Doctor

    More »

    Quick Links

    • MedlinePlus Health Info
    • NIH News in Health
    • Wellness Toolkits
  • Grants & Funding
    • Grants Home Page
    • Find Funding
    • Due Dates
    • How to Apply
    • About Grants
    • Policy & Compliance
    • Grants News/Blog
    • Contracts
    • Loan Repayment

    More »

    Quick Links

    • RePORT
    • eRA Commons
    • NIH Common Fund
  • News & Events
    • News Releases
    • Digital Media Kits
    • Media Resources
    • Media Contacts
    • Images and B-roll
    • Events
    • Social Media

    More »

    Quick Links

    • NIH News in Health
    • NIH Research Matters
    • NIH Record
  • Research & Training
    • Medical Research Initiatives
    • Science Highlights
    • Science Education
    • Research in NIH Labs & Clinics
    • Training Opportunities
    • Library Resources
    • Research Resources
    • Clinical Research Resources
    • Safety, Regulation and Guidance

    More »

    Quick Links

    • PubMed
    • Stem Cell Information
    • OppNet
    • NIDB
    • NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
  • Institutes at NIH
    • List of Institutes and Centers
    • NIH Office of the Director
    • Directors of NIH Institutes and Centers
    • NIH Institute and Center Contact Information

    More »

    Quick Links

    • NCI
    • NEI
    • NHLBI
    • NHGRI
    • NIA
    • NIAAA
    • NIAID
    • NIAMS
    • NIBIB
    • NICHD
    • NIDCD
    • NIDCR
    • NIDDK
    • NIDA
    • NIEHS
    • NIGMS
    • NIMH
    • NIMHD
    • NINDS
    • NINR
    • NLM
    • CC
    • CIT
    • CSR
    • FIC
    • NCATS
    • NCCIH
  • About NIH
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Jobs at NIH
    • Visitor Information
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Contact Us

    More »

    Quick Links

    • The NIH Director
    • Take the Virtual Tour
    • NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®
    • Impact of NIH Research
    • Science, Health, and Public Trust

You are here

Home » News & Events » News Releases

News Releases

Media Advisory

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Multiple research approaches are key to pandemic preparedness, NIAID officials say

A stack of test tubes. NIAID

What

Preparedness in the face of major disease outbreaks can save thousands of lives: Rapid deployment of effective diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines may even stop the disease from potentially exploding into a pandemic. A new article by Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues examines the multifaceted nature of effective preparedness and the particular role that biomedical research plays. Specifically, the article examines three approaches to pandemic preparedness: pathogen-specific work, platform-based technologies, and prototype-pathogen efforts. Using vaccine development as an example, the authors conclude that a combination of all three approaches will lead to the best preparedness for future pandemics. The article appears online today in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Pathogen-specific research prioritizes diseases known to be dangerous, such as Ebola. Countermeasures to prevent and fight the disease are developed ahead of time and can be rapidly deployed if those diseases emerge. However, this approach relies on the ability to correctly identify future threats and cannot prepare for unexpected outbreaks, such as HIV, SARS, or Zika.

With platform-based approaches, researchers focus on developing customizable techniques, such as those involving nanoparticles or viral vectors.  In the event of a pandemic, genetic material can be incorporated into the platform to protect recipients against a specific disease.

The “prototype pathogen” approach can shorten the time needed to create vaccines using platform-based methods. This approach involves studying the characteristics of categories or families of pathogens, such as the family of viruses that contains dengue, West Nile and Zika viruses, and developing vaccines for the category ahead of time. When a disease from a specific category causes an outbreak, these vaccines can be customized if necessary to the specific pathogen within that family, and researchers have a greater chance of quickly deploying an effective vaccine, the authors write.

Despite their adaptability, platform-based and prototype-pathogen approaches do not necessarily yield fully-developed vaccines, treatments or diagnostics, which can lead to a slower response than if pathogen-specific countermeasures had been developed. The best way forward is a combination of all three approaches, the authors write. By investing in research to develop specific countermeasures for known threats and utilizing platform-based and prototype-pathogen approaches to allow for adaptation when unexpected outbreaks arise, global public health organizations can best prepare to combat future disease outbreaks.

Article

H Marston et al. The Critical Role of Biomedical Research in Pandemic Preparedness. The Journal of the American Medical Association DOI: 10.1001/jama.2017.15033 (2017)

Who

NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., is available for comment.

Contact

To schedule interviews, please contact Elizabeth Deatrick, (301) 402-1663, elizabeth.deatrick@nih.gov.

NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.  

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

###

Institute/Center

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Contact

Elizabeth Deatrick
301-402-1663

Connect with Us

  • Subscribe to news releases
  • RSS Feed

Connect with Us

  • Contact Us
  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Flickr
  • More Social Media from NIH

Footer

  • NIH Home
  • Virtual Tour
  • En Español
  • Visitor Information
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimers
  • Accessibility
  • NIH Website Archives
  • Nondiscrimination Notice
  • Freedom of Information Act
  • No Fear Act
  • HHS Vulnerability Disclosure
  • Office of Inspector General
  • USA.gov

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20892

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Back to Top