To bring together its diverse biodefense and public
health preparedness research and training initiatives, the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health has formed the Institute for
Global Health and Security.
"There is a burgeoning need in the nation for science
and leadership development in the fields of biodefense and
public health preparedness," said Alfred Sommer, dean of
the School of Public Health, in making the announcement
last week. "Over the past year we have been discussing ways
to best organize our biodefense and public health
preparedness activities. The new Institute for Global
Health and Security will create synergy between the
school's many research, training and policy initiatives in
these areas."
These initiatives involve 65 full-time faculty members
at the School of Public Health and are supported by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health
Resources and Services Administration, National Institutes
of Health and public and private philanthropy.
The Institute for Global Health and Security will
encompass biodefense programs and activities already under
way at the School of Public Health, which include the
Center for Public Health Preparedness, MidAtlantic Public
Health Training Center, Risk Sciences and Public Policy
Institute and Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies, as
well as newly funded global health research activities.
The institute also will coordinate the school's
activities as a member of the Middle Atlantic Regional
Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious
Diseases Research, or RCE, which will work to develop new
and improved vaccines, and diagnostic tools and treatments
for biological agents and infectious diseases, such as
anthrax bacillus, smallpox, and Ebola and West Nile
viruses. Donald Burke, director of the school's Center for
Immunization Research, is co-principal investigator of the
RCE and a member of its executive leadership committee.
This new institute will continue to grow its
collaborative ties with CEPAR — Johns Hopkins' Office
of Critical Event Preparedness and Response — and
with the university's Applied Physics Laboratory, which has
a unique defense planning capacity.
Over the past two years, the school's centers have
sponsored training seminars for law enforcement, public
health and government officials on public health
preparedness against terrorist attacks, "dirty bombs" or
radiological accidents, bioterrorism in the workplace and
relevant research and policy initiatives.
The school's SWAT team — so named for Scientists
Working to Address Terrorism — also will be a part of
the Institute for Global Health and Security as it
continues to provide expertise on public health
preparedness matters and conduct research. Since its
establishment in September 2001, the SWAT team has worked
with the American Postal Workers Union to develop safe
practices for dealing with potential biological agents in
the mail, advised government officials on the efficacy of
using anthrax vaccine as a preventive measure after
exposure to spores, provided evidence for alternative
smallpox vaccination strategies and published several
studies on the use of antibiotics in preventing anthrax.
One of the School of Public Health's major missions is
training leaders in public health and biodefense who can
grow to lead programs in academia and in the public or
private sectors. This semester, the school began offering a
degree concentration in public health preparedness and
biodefense for students enrolled in its Master of Public
Health program.
Sommer also announced last week that two accomplished
faculty members who were involved in the school's earliest
biodefense policy efforts, D.A. Henderson and Tara O'Toole,
will be joining the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center's Center for Biosecurity, along with two other
faculty members and a number of administrative staff. John
Bartlett, the founding co-director of the Center for
Civilian Biodefense Strategies is remaining with the School
of Medicine.
"The University of Pittsburgh will benefit from these
two talented individuals, who I'm delighted will remain in
Baltimore," Sommer said. "We look forward to continuing our
close collaboration."
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