Collaborators from the Virginia Tech-led National Science Foundation Center for Community Empowering Pandemic Prediction and Prevention from Atoms to Societies brought together dozens of scientists, scholars, and community partners.
Chemical engineering Professor Padma Rajagopalan is designing 3D liver organoids to test the effects of chemotherapy. Developing more effective treatment options for various diseases, including cancer, has become a top priority for researchers today.
An $18 million U.S. National Science Foundation grant will establish a new Virginia Tech center to bring computer science, infectious disease, engineering, and the arts together to predict and prevent global pandemics.
While COVID-19 is only one among many zoonotic viral diseases (those transmissible between animals and humans), its spread to pandemic proportions has highlighted important scientific, societal, and ethical aspects that require consideration for the successful prediction and prevention of further pandemics.
A world where we can accurately foresee pandemics and minimize their impact. We seek to forecast and control future viral pandemics by addressing the grand challenge of uncovering the genetic, molecular, cellular, and chemical rules of life underlying pathogen-host interactions through community-based and ethically grounded research.
Leslie Thornton-O’Brien, M.A.
Project Manager, NSF COMPASS Center
Virginia Tech | Computer Science
Blacksburg, VA 24060
lthornto@vt.edu
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2412115. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.