NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) www.nigms.nih.gov operates a collaborative network called the “Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study” or (MIDAS). Recently grants were awarded to do further research using computational, statistical, and mathematical approaches to do in-depth studies on diseases and how they spread.
MIDAS supports 14 research groups that includes seven new groups and three groups that have been renewed. Under a renewed five year grant, the MIDAS National Center of Excellence www.midas.pitt.edu located at the University of Pittsburgh is developing innovative software and data resources to build a computational framework to reconstruct and predict infectious disease dynamics plus evaluate interventions.
A five year MIDAS renewed grant was also awarded to the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics (CCDD) at the Harvard School of Public Health http://ccdd.hsph.harvard.edu. CCDD is presently studying not only how infections spread but also the best way to combat the transmission of malaria in Kenya.
Models can predict how parts of the complex system can account for gaps when data is inadequate. Aided by powerful computers, these models can also simulate problems in the system which can help detect possible vulnerabilities.
Models can find answers to questions such as the dynamics of pathogen spread, virulence of the pathogen, how it affects host-pathogen interaction, and intervention strategies. Using strong computational support also enables researchers to identify disease agents and conduct disease surveillance to treat and prevent epidemics worldwide.