UAMS to use $7.9 million grant to expand infectious disease research, pandemic response

Central ArkansasHealthcareNews Briefs

by Talk Business & Politics staff ([email protected]) October 25, 2022 7:27 pm 753 views 

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) will use a $7.9 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to expand its infectious disease research capacity and establish a Pandemic Response and Public Health Laboratory by renovating existing research space.

The renovation will create about 9,900 sq. ft. of additional research space on the first floor of Biomedical Research Center Building One. The renovation is expected to begin in mid-2024 and be completed in 2025.

It will include new Biosafety Level-3 space, which is equipped to handle highly infectious pathogens transmitted by air. It will better prepare UAMS for future pandemic responses, create new opportunities for collaboration and help UAMS recruit new infectious disease researchers, according to UAMS officials.

The Pandemic Response and Public Health Laboratory will be available for a rapid response to the next outbreak. It will also be immediately available to process human samples for COVID-19 studies and population health studies in the state and the mid-South.

“If a researcher in Northwest Arkansas has human serum samples from their populations there, they could send them to us for safe processing, or they could come process them here,” said Daniel Voth, Ph.D., professor and chair of the College of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology, who is leading the project.

UAMS has research programs that study tuberculosis, plague, COVID-19 and Q fever in a small Biosafety Level-3 facility. The renovations will expand those programs and enable new pathogen studies that will benefit Arkansas and the global community.

“While we’ve been able to conduct some great collaborative research on COVID-19, we are also limited because we are so pinched for space,” Voth said. “We get a number of collaboration requests from other research institutions that we can’t accommodate because we don’t have enough Biosafety Level-3 facility space.”

Voth also said the grant award highlights that infectious disease research is a priority for the NIH and UAMS.

The project’s team leaders also include:

  • Christine Simecka, DVM, facility manager;
  • Mohamed Elasri, Ph.D., associate vice chancellor for Research and Innovation;
  • Kate Loyd, biosafety officer and Biosafety Level-3 facility manager;
  • Jonathan Davies, project manager;
  • Al Graham, director of UAMS Planning, Design and Construction.