Washington, DC: The Leap From Animals to Humans: Where Infectious Diseases Start
You are invited to a special evening with Professor Clare Bryant, Professor of Innate Immunity on Thursday, February 22 at 6pm.
COVID, Ebola, HIV, Tuberculosis and influenza are all zoonosis – infectious diseases that jumped from non-human animals to humans. Join Professor Bryant as she outlines a new approach to study the origins of these pathogens that focuses on infectious and inflammatory disease, bridges biological, medical and physical sciences, and integrates the social and anthropological sciences, climate change science and biodiversity.
Following the lecture there will be a brief Q & A and time to connect with fellow Cambridge alumni over drinks and canapes.
Cambridge Centre for Zoonotic Research: a commercial approach underpinned by outstanding research
Zoonotic diseases are of critical importance to humans. All pandemics/epidemics of significant public health concern have been zoonoses, the most recent and devastating being the global Covid-19 pandemic. Other familiar pathogens, such as HIV, TB, influenza and Ebola are all zoonoses. These diseases have a major cost to human life and continue to affect populations worldwide. Climate change will have a profound effect on the opportunities for pathogen spillover to the human population. We need to understand where the pathogens come from, how they spread, how they evolve, how they hide in animals, how they jump species, the immune responses they cause in humans and animals, how to predict the most likely pathogens to cause a pandemic, how we can detect/diagnose them and how to prevent or reduce the impact of an outbreak to prevent it becoming a pandemic. A new, sustainable approach is needed.
Vision of the Centre
We propose to establish a forward-thinking interdisciplinary Centre for Research in Zoonoses at the University of Cambridge in association with Queens’ College.
The goals of the proposed Centre are:
- To build a sustainable centre of diverse multi-disciplinary outstanding scientist-entrepreneurs supported by world leading experts
- To disrupt conventional research approaches to zoonotic infectious disease by providing rapidly translatable solutions underpinned by the social, economic and political reality.
The vision of the proposed Centre is:
- To build a multi-disciplinary unit focusing on infectious and inflammatory disease that bridges biological, medical and physical sciences integrating the social and anthropological sciences, climate change science and biodiversity
- To integrate entrepreneurship, translational science and spin out ventures to ensure investment, financial return on investment and sustainable funding, in line with the UK’s industrial strategy
- Work in partnership with global surveillance centres and key biodiversity centres
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