About NERCE / BEID

“The New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (NERCE/BEID) is a network of research collaborations that fosters development of vaccines and therapies against infections caused by weapons of bioterrorism, and against emerging infectious disease.  NERCE/BEID includes investigator-initiated research programs and state-of-the-art core laboratories”

NERCE/BEID is a NIAID-funded research center that supports basic research and the timely development of preventive and therapeutic interventions against microbes that pose the most immediate threats to the general population, either as weapons of bioterrorism or as causes of naturally occurring biological emergencies. The Center is a focal point for New England's research and development in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases, catalyzing collaborative work, creative thinking, and innovative solutions to the myriad challenges posed by biological threats.

NERCE/BEID consists of a series of collaborative projects of various scales supported by core laboratories providing critical services important to biodefense and emerging infectious disease research. These services include Biosafety Level 3 animal model support, genomic-scale proteomics, high-throughput screening, large-scale biological molecule production, and clinical investigation of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics.

NERCE/BEID seeks to apply recent dramatic advances in genomics, proteomics, structural biology, immunology, vaccinology, chemistry, drug screening, and material sciences to problems of importance in combating both intentional and naturally occurring biological threats. NERCE/BEID's faculty members are also involved in basic microbiological training specific to the study of organisms that represent threats as biological weapons and in clinical training in the management of biological casualties.