Northeastern Co-PI of New NSF Center for Insights Into the Pre-Emergence Phase of Pandemics
ECE Distinguished Professor Nian Sun is co-PI of the new NSF Center for Pandemic Insights, which is led by the University of California-Davis and in partnership with 10 universities. Sun is leading innovative sensing technology, while Associate Teaching Professor Jennifer Love is part of the project team for education, outreach, training, and workforce development.
Preventing the next pandemic begins before diseases emerge. This “pre-emergence” phase is the focus of the new U.S. National Science Foundation Center for Pandemic Insights (NSF CPI). Funded over seven-years through NSF’s Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention (PIPP) program, the $18 million center is led by the University of California, Davis, and is in collaboration with 10 partnering institutions, including Northeastern University.
The interdisciplinary center, which draws from health, engineering, agriculture, and social sciences, aims to harness new technologies and develop sensing to detect, investigate, and ultimately prevent pandemics at their source.
Nian Sun, Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering, at Northeastern is co-principal investigator leading innovative sensing technology. He will research technological innovations to enable pre-emergence detection efforts for pathogen sensors, including sensor development, tests, optimization, validation, and deployment. Jennifer Love, associate teaching professor for engineering at Northeastern, is part of the project team focused on education, outreach, training, and workforce development.
Most pandemics are caused by emerging infectious diseases that originate in wildlife and are detected only after causing outbreaks in humans. The complex nature of infectious diseases limits the ability of scientists to conduct targeted surveillance and gather data at the speed or scale needed to detect pandemic threats.
Meanwhile, preventing pandemics requires a deep understanding of viruses where they naturally occur. This includes knowledge of disease cycles in wild animal hosts and how these disease cycles interact with people on the landscape. Those interactions occur at the pre-emergence phase of pandemics.
Center scientists aim to:
- Study how epidemics cycle in nature, looking at animals that are the natural reservoirs for viruses. They will create models to understand how diseases may spill over before developing into pandemics.
- Create sensor networks that can detect disease cycles in nature.
- Fine-tune insights into pandemic risk using advanced computer programs that mix model predictions with sensor data.
Together, these efforts can enable large-scale, safe, and efficient monitoring for emerging diseases.
Other partnering institutions that will lead a range of center activities include the University of Southern California, Labyrinth Global Health, Texas Tech University, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, UCLA, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, University of Michigan, UC San Diego, and Colorado State University.