Sheba Medical Center in Ramar Gan announced a partnership with the US government National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish the new Sheba Pandemic Research Institute (SPRI).
The focus of the institute will be to translate the global research into infectious diseases into the development of rapid deployment clinical products to combat future epidemics and pandemics.
“The establishment of the Sheba Pandemic Research Institute represents a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to prevent and combat future epidemics and pandemics,” said Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay, Director of the Sheba Pandemic Research Institute & Infectious Diseases Unit at Sheba Medical Center.
“Together with the NIH, we hope that the discovery of pathogens and infectious diseases can be translated into health outcomes that not only improve but protect the lives of patients worldwide.”
The SPRI will work directly with the NIH Vaccine Research Center in Maryland and focus its research on innovative techniques to discover new pathogens and predict future viral and bacterial threats.
“The establishment of the Sheba Pandemic Research Institute represents a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to prevent and combat future epidemics and pandemics.”
Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay
Necessity for mRNA COVID boosters
The establishment of the institute comes after publication in the New England Journal of Medicine of research done in Sheba Medical Center showed the necessity for mRNA COVID vaccine booster doses and pinpointed their ideal timing.
“The core of the National Institutes of Health and Vaccine Research Center mission is the application of scientific and technological knowledge to design and develop vaccines and biologics against infectious diseases” said Prof. Daniel Douek, Chief of the Human Immunology Section, Vaccine Research Center, NIH and newly appointed Senior Scientific Advisor of the Sheba Pandemic Research Institute. “Together with Sheba, we can turn discovery into real health advances.”
Sheba Medical Center is the largest and most comprehensive medical center in the Middle East. The NIH is a component of the US Department of Health and Human Services and the primary federal agency conducting and supporting medical research and investigating causes, treatments, and cures for diseases.
