NIAID Research Agenda for CDC Category A Agents

NIAID Research Agenda for CDC Category A Agents

This progress report details the progress of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases towards the recommendations made by the Blue Ribbon Panel on Bioterrorism and Its Implications for Biomedical Research in February 2002. These recommendations concerned CDC Category A Agents: anthrax, smallpox, botulism, plague, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers.

2003

The NIAID has made progress to the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel. Most recommendations focused on the development of diagnostics, genomic sequencing, the development of new vaccines and therapeutics, and testing the efficacy of existing therapeutics. The agents that received the most attention in terms of new grants and projects were anthrax and smallpox. The NIAID has also begun research on innate immunity in general, nonspecific to certain agents.