• Bangladesh: Cholera • Denmark: Food safety • Dominican Republic: Tuberculosis • Florida: Gainesville is home to EPI’s international and domestic projects • Gambia: Diarrheal diseases • Haiti: Malaria • India: Diarrheal diseases • Kenya: Malaria • Mali: Diarrheal diseases • Morocco: Tuberculosis • Netherlands: Food safety • Niger: Measles • Peru: Food safety
EPI works abroad in order to understand the processes of new and re-emerging diseases before they reach Florida’s shores. Our investigators presently work in 18 countries and U.S. territories on at least seven different types of pathogens.
• Republic of Georgia: Plague • Tanzania: Malaria • United Kingdom: Food safety • Vanuatu: Malaria • Virgin Islands: Harmful algal blooms
Emerging Pathogens Institute University of Florida • PO Box 100009 Gainesville, FL 32610 Phone: 352-273-7526 • Fax: 352-273-6890
w w w.epi.uf l .edu All images ©2009 Eric Zamora, except: Mosquito on cover and inside panel ©2008 James Newman, IFAS-UF; EPI Director Glenn Morris, left inside panel ©2009 Ray Carson, UF News Bureau; Ill child on inside panel ©2009 Suman Kanungo, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, India; Market vegetables on cover, ©2009 iStockphoto.com; Graphic world map adapted from © 2009 iStockphoto.com.
Emerging Pathogens Institute
About EPI
EPI matters
The Emerg ing Pathogens Institute fuses key disciplines to develop research capabilities designed to preserve Florida’s health and economy, and to prevent or contain new and re-emerging diseases. EPI works globally and locally with the mindset that it is better to be prepared and knowledgeable before a novel pathogen arrives on Florida’s shores.
We live in a world of constant change, and the greatest changes occur unnoticed to the human eye within the burgeoning microbial microcosm. Not all microbes pose dangers to humans, plants and wildlife, but some do. We study new and re-emerging diseases that threaten Florida’s health and economy, or that hold the potential to, with an eye toward providing first-line responders and policymakers with the best data possible.
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Why Florida?
EPI represents a new approach
New and re-emerging diseases threaten Florida’s health and economy, which are particularly vulnerable due to the state’s mild climate and diverse agriculture. Weather patterns, commercial plant imports and annual global visitors all have the potential to unsuspectingly carry pathogens from other countries into our state.
EPI was created to research and track novel and re-emerging infectious diseases affecting people, plants, animals and our foods. The institute aligns and strengthens existing resources across seven colleges on UF’s campus, as well as attracting new talent and creating new synergies.
Our investigators EPI’s researchers work across disciplines, and across scales. From infectious disease and pulmonary specialists to microbiologists; from human, animal and plant pathologists to entomologists; from mathematical modelers to evolutionary geneticists – EPI is dedicated to linking and supporting the best minds in order to explore and better understand novel infectious diseases in our world.
EPI is interested in talking with individuals or organizations who would like to learn how they can help support our many research agendas. There are infinite reasons to support EPI, choose the one that matters most to you.
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