Our Expertise
The Global Center for Health Security is a culmination of 20 years of persistence, planning, and training at UNMC to build emergency preparedness capacity.
The Nebraska Public Health Laboratory was established at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1997 through a cooperative agreement between the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and Nebraska Medicine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided grant funding for testing of bio-threat and chemical agents.
Two decades of emergency preparedness
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, UNMC was among several entities nationwide to receive federal funding for bioterrorism preparedness. In 2004, UNMC, in conjunction with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, and Nebraska Medicine, began planning the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. It opened in 2005, as the largest such unit in the nation, set up to handle highly contagious and deadly infectious conditions, including: SARS, smallpox, plague, Ebola virus disease and other viral hemorrhagic fevers.
Historical Timeline | Notable Events
2004
- The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit (NBU) plan was developed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine. The unit was a joint venture between the Nebraska State Health Department, UNMC and Nebraska Medicine-Nebraska Medical Center.
2005
- The 10-bed Nebraska Biocontainment Unit opened at the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine. The unit was designed to treat patients with highly infectious agents such as smallpox, monkey pox, SARS and Ebola.
2006-2015
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The Nebraska Biocontainment Unit engaged in active research in projects such as decontamination, mathematical modeling of air flow, and correct use of personal protective equipment for hazardous agents. NBU leadership group publishes more than 50 chapters, articles, abstracts and e-based educational modules, and gives more than 100 presentations on biocontainment, biosafety and Ebola. NBU also serves as a leader in local education for health care providers in dealing with hazardous infectious diseases.
2009
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The NBU is activated for a suspected viral hemorrhagic fever patient who turned out to have malaria.
2014-2015
- The U.S. Department of State asked the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit (NBU) to care for deployed Americans with Ebola. Two patients were safely and successfully treated and released; a third arrived gravely ill, and died after two days of treatment. By late 2014, the Nebraska Ebola Method for safely caring for patients with infectious pathogens, is made available as an online course and resource, for the public and for clinicians. The team also offered Center for Disease Control and Prevention courses on campus. The team was praised nationally, including by President Barack Obama. “The Ebola Fighters” were named Midlanders of the Year by the Omaha World-Herald newspaper.
2015
- Nebraska teamed up with Emory University in Atlanta and Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City, on a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish and co-lead the nation's National Ebola Training and Education Center , now known as National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC).
2016
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded funding to UNMC and Nebraska Medicine to develop a national Training, Simulation and Quarantine Center (TSQC).
2017
- UNMC and Nebraska Medicine established the Global Center for Health Security as the umbrella entity to oversee the entirety of its biopreparedness efforts. The Global Center for Health Security globally focuses on clinical care and operations, driving innovations in research and development, and training and education.
2018
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UNMC, Nebraska Medicine and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory partner to establish the Center for Sustainment of Trauma Readiness Skills (C-STARS) Omaha. C-STARS Omaha focuses on advancing the readiness skills and competency of U.S. Air Force medical personnel who provide safe and effective care for patients who have contracted or may have been exposed to highly hazardous infectious diseases.
2019
- UNMC’s Dr. Edwin G. & Dorothy Balbach Davis Global Center, which houses the Training, Simulation & Quarantine Center (TSQC) with state-of-the-art quarantine facilities, clinical simulation infrastructure and training lab opened.
2020
- The National Quarantine Unit (NQU) and the NBU are activated during the COVID-19 outbreak, working closely with federal partners. Fifty-seven Americans who had been working in Wuhan, China, and 13 passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan are evacuated and transported to Nebraska.
- UNMC developed COVID-19 guidelines for meat processing facilities.
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UNMC partners with bio-pharmaceutical company Covaxx to provide large-scale antibody testing in Nebraska.
2022
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Members of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit team serve as institutional clinical care and infection control leaders during the international Mpox outbreak. An outbreak of Sudan virus disease in Africa stimulates initiation of an investigational therapeutic agent protocol amongst the 10 Regional Special Pathogen Treatment Centers, with UNMC/Nebraska Medicine serving as the lead site and PI. The Bangladesh minister of health visits the NBU. The Surgeon General of the US Air Force tours the NBU and GCHS and calls UNMC/Nebraska Medicine “the country’s premier biocontainment resource.”
- The GCHS launched The Transmission, curated and produced by Claudinne Miller, a former Department of Defense intelligence analyst with extensive experience in delivering reports to senior U.S. government officials as well as leaders in international public health, academia, and government regarding significant outbreaks such as H5N1, H1N1, Ebola, and COVID-19.
- GCHS introduced the "Never Again: Pandemic Readiness" Summit Series. This series convenes experts, academics, and business leaders to evaluate our current response efforts, identify critical areas for improvement, and discuss potential public-private partnerships aimed at preventing adverse outcomes in future pandemics.
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Members of the NBU team served as institutional clinical care and infection control leaders during the international Mpox outbreak.
2023
- The Global Center for Health Security (GCHS) hosted the second chapter of the Never Again: Pandemic Readiness Summit Series, featuring Dr. Jeremy Farrar, MBBS, DPhil, a world-renowned epidemiologist and clinical scientist. The summit included a panel of experts in emergency preparedness, response, and highly infectious contagious diseases.
- The GCHS transitioned to Academic Affairs and restructured its leadership team.
- The C-STARS program and the US Department of Defense bring the Negatively Pressurized Conex (NPC) unit to be placed on the Nebraska Medicine campus.
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The University of Nebraska Board of Regents approve moving forward with planning for an infectious diseases air transport training facility at UNMC.
Watch our 2023 Year in Review video.
2024
- The NBU and GCHS leaders assist with development of institutional guidance for identifying patients with novel influenza (H5N1) following human cases identified in dairy farm workers in the U.S.
- UNMC and the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center develop and run a high-level infectious disease exercise to educate members of NATO’s medical working group.
- GCHS team members traveled to Rwanda to assist in the Marburg virus outbreak, and the NBU held a 10 Year Anniversary event to commemorate the care of Americans with Ebola Virus Disease.
Watch our 2024 Year in Review video.
2025
- The East Africa Region Global Health Security Summit 2025 was held in Mombasa, Kenya. Convened by the GCHS, the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Board and Secretariat, and the Jumuiya Economic DevelopmentSecretariat, with partners from AMREF International University, Africa CDC EARCC, Government of Kenya Ministry of Health, Afro WHO, Africa HealthBusiness and other partners, the summit brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to advance regional health security initiatives.
