NSF, NIH award Ecology of Infectious Disease grants

Scientists to study links between environmental changes, spread of infectious diseases

EID scientists are studying West Nile virus transmission in songbirds. Click here for more information.

Unprecedented changes in biodiversity have coincided with the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases around the world.

To address this problem, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have announced $16 million in funding for eight projects under the Ecology of Infectious Diseases (EID) program, a multi-year, joint-agency effort now in its ninth year of funding.

"In a time of rapid global change, the one certainty is that emerging infectious diseases will be more common," said James Collins, NSF assistant director for biological sciences. "These new EID research awards will support the basic studies needed to predict the timing and severity of the emergence and spread of these diseases."

This army of ticks looking for hosts may be carrying anaplasmosis, an infectious disease in cattle. Click here for more information.

NSF's contribution to the EID program is from its Directorates for Biological Sciences; Geosciences; and Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences.

Interdisciplinary projects funded through the EID program will study how large-scale environmental events -- such as climate change, habitat destruction, biological invasions, pollution and a variety of interventions -- alter the risks of viral, parasitic and bacterial diseases in humans and animals.

"Ecological studies of infectious diseases are beginning to move from basic science to translational research," said Joshua Rosenthal, EID program director at NIH's Fogarty International Center. "The results will help us to better manage these diseases."