Williams Receives Southeast Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense (SERCEB) Award

Durham, N.C. (May 2007) -- Kristi L. Williams, PhD, an assistant research professor in the Departments of Cell Biology and Immunology at the Duke University Medical Center, was selected to receive a Southeast Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense (SERCEB) Award to study NLR genes and anthrax in the amount of $112,000.

The mission of SERCEB is to perform the basic and translational research to make drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics to protect society from emerging infections and biothreats. Funded by the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, SERCEB investigators focus on select-agent infections and newly emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.

The Southeast Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging Infections and Biodefense (SERCEB) was established in September 2003 at Duke University with Dr. Barton F. Haynes as principal investigator. In December 2005, Dr. P. Frederick Sparling accepted an appointment at Duke and assumed leadership as principal investigator of SERCEB. At this same time, Dr. Richard Moyer of the University of Florida was named co-PI of SERCEB. Drs. Sparling and Moyer are joined by Dr. Richard Whitley of the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Dr. David Stephens of Emory University, Dr. Jenny Ting of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Mark Denison of Vanderbilt University, and Dr. Phil Hanna of the University of Michigan as members of the SERCEB Steering Committee. This Steering Committee is the governing body for SERCEB. They are supported by a Scientific Advisory Board of external peer reviewers and by Program Officers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.