CDC selects Massachusetts Department of Public Health to lead $25 million regional center for tackling infectious disease threats

The CDC has picked the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to lead a $25 million regional center to better prevent and respond to infectious disease outbreaks, state health officials announced on Monday.

The DPH will establish the New England Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence — one of five regional centers designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The funding of $25 million over a five-year period will launch a DPH-led regional center to improve the public health system’s response to infectious disease threats.

“We have learned a lot about the power of genomics, particularly the role of viral variants in disease outbreaks,” said Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke. “This new funding and collaboration will help us build on what we’ve learned responding to COVID-19, as well as to Zika, mumps, hepatitis A, and other infections of public health importance.”

The DPH’s partners include the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as lead academic partner along with Boston University, Yale University, Fathom Information Design, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Theiagen Genomics.

“The Massachusetts COVID-19 response has relied on our many colleague laboratories, institutions, and organizations, including universities and partners in the medical, public health, and scientific community,” said DPH Assistant Commissioner Kevin Cranston, director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences. “We believe this Center of Excellence will spur new innovation and inform how we address future public health threats.”

Nationally, a total of $1.7 billion in funding from the American Rescue Plan is helping support current and future genomic surveillance.

These funds include $400 million for innovation, and about $90 million of this amount will support the Pathogen Genomics Center of Excellence network over the next five years.

“The collaboration with our public health and academic partners to conduct and analyze SARS-CoV-2 genomic data has been critical to our COVID-19 response over the past couple years,” said Christopher Braden, CDC acting director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

The four other regional centers designated by the CDC are the Georgia Department of Public Health, the Minnesota Department of Health, the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services, and the Washington State Department of Health.