July 01, 2021

The University of Georgia is host of the newest institution in a federal influenza research network.

That institution also is the only one in the network linked with a veterinary college.

S. Mark Tompkins, PhD, is director of the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research, a new institution in the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response, which is a network funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within the National Institutes of Health. He is also a professor of infectious disease in the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine.

A university announcement indicates the contract with the NIAID comes with up to $92 million in funding over seven years. In 2019, UGA received a separate NIH contract worth up to $130 million to establish a collaborative influenza vaccine innovation center, the announcement states.

The other institutions in the research network are at Emory University, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Tompkins talked with JAVMA News about the NIH contract and his hopes that the center will grow and diversify UGA’s research portfolio. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. Could you describe the idea behind the center and your goals for it?

A. The program that we’re advancing is focused on a few key aspects of influenza, seeking to understand why some individuals infected with flu end up having a severe disease versus a more mild disease. And so why do some people become hospitalized—both adults and children—while other people have a milder case of influenza?

We have projects where we’re working with different hospitals around the U.S. and internationally to collect and analyze samples from individuals that get the flu, whether it’s a mild case or severe case where people might be hospitalized.

As a general concept, our center is really built around the idea of understanding influenza infection and how it varies across populations and varies with viruses and how we can be better prepared to address it, providing information for vaccine development, drug development, and public health responses.

S. Mark Tompkins, PhD, director of the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research

Some populations have more severe flu infections more often than other populations. This has been seen in different indigenous populations around the world. And so we have projects where we’ve partnered with groups to actually study influenza infection and vaccination in indigenous populations in Australia and the Americas.

A third area that is tied into these human studies is our general understanding of why, when some people become infected, they get severe disease. So, we have experimental studies to understand disease severity using culture systems, animal models, and samples from humans as well.

We know quite a bit about influenza A, and we’ve studied it intensely for years because it can cause pandemics—really good rationale for that. There’s actually a lot less known about influenza B.

So, one area that we’re focusing on is flu B and understanding how it may behave differently—using animal models, human studies, and computational biology—working with ecologists here at UGA to model infection, to understand how flu A and flu B are different, to help with not only vaccine development but then also public health responses.

As a general concept, our center is really built around the idea of understanding influenza infection and how it varies across populations and varies with viruses and how we can be better prepared to address it, providing information for vaccine development, drug development, and public health responses.

We are also involved in pandemic preparedness and response, and so we have or are developing activities to help with virus risk assessment and be poised, if there is another pandemic, to help with a pandemic response through our network, working with the other institutions, centers, and the NIH in terms of providing resources and expertise.

Another important element of our center is training and capacity building. We have components to offer training grants, workshops, and other activities to really grow the research community, particularly around influenza, but also for public health and pandemic preparedness.

Q. How will the Center work with the other NIAID-funded influenza centers?

A. NIAID really works to encourage cross-center interactions so we are not siloed on projects. Whether it’s through regular cross-center activities, calls, and webinars but also—when we can get back to in-person meetings—having our annual meetings where all of the individuals at all the centers meet to present their work and discuss advancing the field. Those opportunities, as well as new funding opportunities, not only advance the field but also encourage that cross-pollination.

There are networkwide training programs where we could send people to work in other laboratories and other centers, or other labs at other centers might send their people here to learn specific skills or develop a project.

All these centers have similar initiatives to expand the capacity around influenza research and pandemic preparedness. NIAID really orchestrates it, but individual centers and investigators develop new collaborations and seed ideas through active engagement across the network.

Q. How long have you been studying influenza?

A. I’ve been studying influenza for about 20 years now. I got my PhD in immunology at Emory and studied basic immunology and then I did a postdoc at Northwestern University Medical School, where I studied autoimmune disease, particularly multiple sclerosis. After that, I moved to the FDA, and that’s where I started working on influenza, particularly looking at novel influenza vaccines and understanding immune responses to those vaccines. In 2005, I got recruited to UGA and have continued to study aspects of influenza virus emergence, infection, and pathogenesis along with collaboratively developing vaccines and other interventions.

Q. Is there anything else that you want to say or expand on?

A. I will say, with a great deal of pride, that this is a major achievement for myself, certainly, but also for the institution. We’re in a very elite group, so I think that’s worth recognizing that the University of Georgia really has worked and built a very strong infectious disease program that is recognized nationally and internationally. Second, I’d like to note that we certainly could not have even submitted, let alone been awarded, this contract without the incredible support of the Office of Research here. So it does speak to the investment into research at UGA. And, certainly, we received a lot of support from the College of Veterinary Medicine as well.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the name of the NIAID Centers of Excellence network.