At the University of Nebraska Board of Regents meeting today, Steven
Hinrichs, M.D., presented an update on bioterrorism proposals and projects
involving faculty and researchers from the four University of Nebraska
campuses. Dr. Hinrichs is director of the University of Nebraska Center
for Biosecurity and professor in the department of pathology and microbiology
at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
A great deal of progress has been made this year and much of it is due to
contributions by leaders in Nebraska, including the governor and our
congressional delegation, said UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D.
We also are very pleased with the support provided by the business community.
At the meeting, Dr. Hinrichs highlighted a variety of bioterrorism-related
projects involving the University of Nebraska, the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), the Nebraska Health and Human Services System (HHSS) and
private business.
Nebraska has been unique in that it has had tremendous collaboration
among government, academia and the private business sector, Dr. Hinrichs
said. This collaboration has received much attention and is now being
referred to as the Nebraska Model.
Last month, DHS announced the University of Nebraska was one of 12 universities
(out of 72) invited to submit a full grant proposal for a university-based
research center related to the economic consequences of terrorism. The
$12 million grant would examine the concept that alternative strategies
can be developed to minimize the economic impact of terrorist attacks on
the transportation and supply distribution infrastructure of the United
States. It would be housed at the University of Nebraskas Peter Kiewit
Institute, located at the University of Nebraska at Omahas south campus,
under principal investigator Gerald Wagner, Ph.D., of the UNO College of
Information Science and Technology
Richard Raymond, M.D., chief medical officer for Nebraska HHSS,
spoke about the combined efforts of HHSS and the university. "This partnership
has benefited all Nebraskans," Raymond said. "It has put us on the national
map."
We have been very successful in developing university projects that
have received or will be receiving federal funding in cooperation with
the Nebraska HHSS, Dr. Hinrichs said.
Listed below are some of the units which have received project funding:
· The Nebraska Public Health Laboratory;
· The UNL Center for Advanced Land Management and Information
Technology;
· The Health Professions Tracking Center at UNMC;
· The UNO Aviation Institute;
· The Nebraska Center for Bioterrorism Education;
· A UNK chemistry laboratory will house special equipment acquired
by the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency for the identification of potential
chemical agents;
· A high-risk isolation facility at UNMC.
The university continues to seek designation by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) as a national bioterrorism preparedness center.
The university has received additional federal funding in the
form of
a Department of Defense appropriations bill that provides $2.5 million
for UNMC to take its clinical laboratory automation technology to the next
level. The allocation to UNMC would be used to develop portable and networked
automation testing technology that would efficiently and rapidly process
specimens to detect the existence of biological agents in the event of
a biological attack.
UNMC recently received a two-year, $650,000 federal grant from the Health
Resources Services Administration (HRSA) to develop a bioterrorism-related
curriculum, which will benefit all UNMC students and may be used by students
nationally. UNMC was one of 12 universities nationwide to receive curriculum-development
funding through the Health and Human Services Bioterrorism Training and
Curriculum Development Program.