These are just a few of the hundreds of stories of service by the members of the NIBC, leading scientific development, protecting America.

2007: USAMRIID research played a key role in saving the life of an Indiana toddler with eczema vaccinatum. The child contracted the illness, which can be fatal, through accidental contact with an open skin lesion on a relative who had recently been vaccinated for smallpox using a live vaccinia virus vaccine. Under an emergency protocol facilitated by the CDC, the boy received an investigational new drug that saved his life.

2005: Construction begins on the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Integrated Research Facility at Ft. Detrick. The NIAID IRF mission is to better understand infectious diseases and develop new and improved diagnostics, treatments, and prevention strategies that will improve medical outcomes for patients. The NIAID IRF is a highly sophisticated research facility incorporating research laboratories, state-of-the-art medical imaging equipment, and other clinical and diagnostic systems. Because of these unique capabilities, the facility will be an important resource for the infectious diseases research community worldwide.

2004: In April 2004, the National Bioforensics Analysis Center (NBFAC) was created by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 10 within the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) to be

"...the lead Federal facility to conduct and facilitate technical forensic analysis and interpretation of materials recovered following a biological attack in support of the appropriate lead Federal agency."

To accomplish this mission, DoD and DHS collaboration established the first dedicated bioforensic containment laboratory within the United States. Commissioned in May of 2004, the NBFAC Interim "Hub" laboratory located at USAMRIID immediately began supporting the FBI and other federal government customers.

2003-present: USAMRIID continues to lead the national effort to test the efficacy of preclinical and FDA licensed antibiotics against a wide range of bacterial biothreat agents. These studies also permit rapid down-selection of potential therapeutic compounds early in the developmental stage, thus providing essential time and cost savings to U.S. government and pharmaceutical partners.

2003: During the summer of 2003, an outbreak of human monkeypox occurred in the U.S. Midwest. Fifty-two rodents suspected of being infected with monkeypox virus were submitted to USAMRIID for testing. The Institute developed multiple tests that could be completed rapidly to identify this infection in real time.

2003: USAMRIID played a key role in developing diagnostic systems and evaluating antiviral drugs for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, during a global outbreak in several countries. In collaboration with NIAID's Preclinical Drug Discovery and Development Program, this effort resulted in the identification of one promising compound that has since gone into clinical trials.

Rapid Response to SARS Pandemic

CDC, USAMRIID, and Intermune, Inc. worked together during the spring and summer of 2003 to develop rapid and effective responses to the SARS pandemic, a highly lethal lower respiratory disease in humans caused by a newly emergent coronavirus. The collaboration took advantage of the strengths of all the organizations, and led to development of a full array of countermeasures and research tools to support ongoing efforts and combat future outbreaks. Major achievements include:

• Diagnostics: rapid nucleic acid detection assays and antibody screening reagents were developed which should allow early detection and thus more rapid containment of subsequent outbreaks

• Animal Models: Isolates of SARS were used to develop an aerosol model for SARS in non-human primates for preclinical testing of potential SARS countermeasures

• Therapeutics: in vitro screening of several hundred thousand compounds for anti-SARS activity led to identification of several active compounds that later entered clinical trials.

2002-present: USAMRIID is collaborating with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center, to immunize the black-footed ferret, one of the most endangered mammals in the U.S. This animal is an integral part of the natural grassland ecosystem, originally distributed throughout the Western and Midwestern United States, but its range and total population have been severely diminished by habitat incursion and the expansion of endemic plague carried by wild animals. The vaccination program has worked so well that expanded immunizations will soon be protecting black-footed ferret populations in other regions of the U.S. across the mountain west.