# A Bedside-to-Bench Approach to Pandemic Preparedness

> **NIH NIH G20** · UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER · 2022 · $3,906,967

## Abstract

The clinical capabilities of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and its
clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine (NM), played vital roles in the treatment of U.S. citizens
infected with Ebola in 2014 and the early response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the
presence of the National Quarantine Unit (NQU) and the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit (NBU)
on campus provided UNMC researchers with some of the earliest access to individuals exposed
to infectious agents (in the NQU), as well as those who begin to develop disease (in the NBU),
we recognized a key gap in our capabilities is the lack of modern technologies within our high-
containment spaces required to gain greater insights into the pathogenic mechanisms utilized by
new and emerging pathogens. Therefore, the overall goal of this proposed project is to modernize
our high-containment research laboratories to maximize their research potential and to leverage
our clinical expertise to foster research on vaccine and therapeutic development. This will be
achieved in two ways: First, we will improve our biocontainment infrastructure within key
biocontainment research facilities in a way that increases our capacity to conduct research on
high-consequence pathogens, maximizes synergy between the various biocontainment
laboratories, and increases biosecurity. Second, we will invest in the modern technologies needed
in our BSL-3 and ABSL-3 laboratories to conduct cutting-edge studies on new and emerging
pathogens and to address critical questions related to disease pathogenesis. Upon completion,
these improvements will foster much greater synergy between the clinical and research arms of
UNMC and NM, leveraging early access to clinical data/samples to streamline research into
disease pathogenesis, and to accelerate the development of new vaccines and therapeutics
during future pandemics.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10611759
- **Project number:** 1G20AI174728-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** KENNETH W. BAYLES
- **Activity code:** G20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $3,906,967
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-16 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10611759

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10611759, A Bedside-to-Bench Approach to Pandemic Preparedness (1G20AI174728-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10611759. Licensed CC0.

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