MTU One of Four State Universities to Receive $18.5M in Federal Funding to Expand Infectious Disease Research

Michigan Tech will get $4.3 million to support the state of Michigan develop sequencing
for COVID-19 and other infectious ailments.

The Michigan Section of Health and fitness and Human Companies (MDHHS) declared nowadays that 4 Michigan universities will get $18.5 million in federal funds over
the next two a long time to accumulate and review genomic facts to tackle emerging infectious
illness threats and improve the state’s capacity to respond to these threats.

Michigan Technological College, Michigan Point out College, the University of Michigan
and Wayne Point out University will use the funding to increase sequencing potential in
the state — setting up with SARS-CoV-2 and then growing to other infectious ailment
threats with possible for broad neighborhood distribute.

Funding for the Michigan Sequencing Educational Partnership for General public Health and fitness Innovation
and Response (MI-SAPPHIRE) is by means of a Facilities for Disease Manage and Avoidance
(CDC) Epidemiology and Laboratory Capability grant MDHHS received. MI-SAPPHIRE routines
will consist of sequence technology and investigation, this kind of as sample assortment and sequencing
knowledge processing, storage and sharing and info interpretation and analytics.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the significance and have to have for genomic sequencing, surveillance and epidemiology capability equally globally and appropriate listed here in Michigan,”
stated Elizabeth Hertel, MDHHS director. “The MDHHS Bureau of Laboratories has promptly
expanded its endeavours to detect COVID-19 variants since the get started of the pandemic
to aid general public wellness actions. MI-SAPPHIRE will permit our state to extend sequencing
and analysis capacity and the range of pathogens that undertake schedule sequencing,
and assure we are sampling various geographic spots across the condition.”

“Michigan Tech proceeds to be a chief in the Upper Peninsula for furnishing local community
resources during the COVID-19 pandemic,” claimed Caryn Heldt, the James and Lorna Mack Endowed Chair of Cellular and Molecular Engineering at
Tech and the director of the University’s Overall health Investigate Institute. “For 20 months, the University presented local community and campus tests for the virus.
Now, with the support from the condition and federal govt, we will build the infrastructure
to give sequencing capacity for the state overall health agencies.

“While we will start with SARS-CoV-2 sequencing, the potential we are making will
then be utilised to sequence other pathogens, ranging from drug-resistant gonorrhea to
zoonotic illnesses, like avian influenza,” Heldt claimed. “Collectively, Michigan Tech
has abilities in genomic sequencing, zoonotic disorders and the computational infrastructure
desired to shop, catalog and evaluate significant genomic datasets. Mix this skills
with the relationships we have with area suppliers and the Western Upper Peninsula
Overall health Department, and we are psyched to help the state scale their capability and proceed
to assist our neighborhood in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in addressing upcoming
health and fitness threats.”

Michigan Tech’s investigation crew includes Heldt, her co-principal investigators Dukka KC and Hairong Wei, and senior scientists Kristin Brzeski, Male Hembroff, Kelly Kamm, Stephen Techtmann and Kui Zhang.

Michigan Technological University is a public investigate college founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is household to a lot more than 7,000 learners from 55 international locations all-around the entire world. Regularly rated amid the greatest universities in the nation for return on financial investment, the College offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate diploma plans in science and technologies, engineering, computing, forestry, business enterprise and economics, wellbeing professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is positioned just miles from Lake Top-quality in Michigan’s Higher Peninsula, presenting yr-round possibilities for outside experience.