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I’m not going to be able to tell you about the consequences of EVERY lost grant, but I’m going to try. Let’s start with the Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) program for pathogens of pandemic concern! It just got unceremoniously shitcanned.

Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern

(TEM image)



Transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (yellow) within endosomes of a heavily infected nasal Olfactory Epithelial Cell.
Credit: NIAID

Here’s a list of all the funded research with links to NIH Reporter so you can dig through all the info about what your tax dollars have funded. Do you think we need more antiviral medication? I do! AViDD research was developing new antivirals. www.niaid.nih.gov

We don’t have many of these, because viruses evolve too fast, infections are diagnosed too slow, & unlike bacteria, viruses can be so different that there aren’t many broad spectrum antibiotics. The AViDD centers were funded to develop antivirals for potential pandemic viruses.

The AViDD Centers will conduct innovative, multidisciplinary research to develop candidate COVID-19 antivirals, especially those that can be taken in an outpatient setting, as well as antivirals targeting specific viral families with high potential to cause a pandemic in the future. These include paramyxoviruses, bunyaviruses, togaviruses, filoviruses (including Ebola viruses and Marburg virus), picornaviruses (including enteroviruses and other cold-causing viruses), and flaviviruses (including the viruses that cause yellow fever, dengue and Zika). 

The AViDD Centers will conduct research on the early-stage identification and validation of novel viral targets, with an eye to identify small molecules and biotherapeutics that directly block viral targets. As drug candidates are identified and evaluated for properties such as potency and breadth, the most promising will enter late-stage preclinical development. Importantly, the Centers will draw on the resources of their industry partners to accelerate research, making use of the companies’ chemical libraries and expertise in moving candidates into the product development pipeline.

Like the ASAP center based at Sloan Kettering, which was using AI structural analysis to predict & test molecules targeting 3 virus families: coronaviruses, flaviviruses (dengue, yellow fever, Zika, West Nile, HCV), & picornaviruses (polio, EV-D68, FMDV). reporter.nih.gov

AI-Driven Structure-Enabled Antiviral Platform (ASAP)

Principal Investigators: John Chodera, Ph.D.; Benjamin Perry, Ph.D.; Alpha Lee, Ph.D.
Institutes: Sloan Kettering Institute of Cancer Research; Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative; PostEra, Inc.

Award #: U19AI171399

Or the AC/DC center at Emory, developing nucleoside analogs & polymerase inhibitors against CoVs, flavis, picornas, paramyxoviruses (Nipah, Hendra, measles, RSV), & togaviruses (Chikungunya, VEEV/WEEV/EEEV). They had 4 drugs to test & were screening more. reporter.nih.gov

Antiviral Countermeasures Development Center (AC/DC)

Principal Investigators: George Painter, Ph.D.; Richard Plemper, Ph.D.
Institutes: Emory University; Georgia State University

Award #: U19AI171403

At Scripps there was CAMPP, focused on CoVs, flavis, & hemorrhagic fever viruses (filoviruses: Ebola, Marburg; bunyaviruses: SFTSV; arenaviruses: Lassa). They were advancing promising oral candidates as well as finding drugs with new mechanisms of action. reporter.nih.gov

Center for Antiviral Medicines & Pandemic Preparedness (CAMPP)

Principal Investigators: Sumit Chanda, Ph.D.; Arnab Chatterjee, Ph.D; Adolfo García-Sastre, Ph.D.
Institutes: Scripps Research Institute; Calibr; Icahn School of Medicine at Mt.Sinai

Award #: U19AI171443

I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at a pandemic preparedness seminar hosted by CAMPP last month, where I got to hear from a number of colleagues doing amazing antiviral discovery work in CAMPP & other AViDD centers. And all anyone could talk about was H5N1. bsky.app

Angie Rasmussen
Angie Rasmussen· February 24, 2025
@angierasmussen.bsky.social

Grateful to Sumit Chanda at Scripps research for inviting me to present my lab’s work on pandemic origins & H5N1 at this wonderful symposium today. Link to attend virtually: scrippsresearch.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

In fact, I was on my way to the symposium getting calls from reporters about another hospitalized H5N1 patient as well as new pre immune studies just out. Flu antivirals don’t work very well & can develop resistance quickly, so new antivirals are crucial for flu pandemics. bsky.app

Angie Rasmussen
Angie Rasmussen· February 25, 2025
@angierasmussen.bsky.social

So yesterday I was on my way to give a talk on pandemic preparedness & @melodyschreiber.com asked me to comment on hospitalized H5N1 patients as well as the prospect of cross-protection. It could not be more relevant to pandemic preparedness and here is why. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

www.theguardian.com
Two people in US hospitalized with bird flu, CDC reports

In my talk, I went over how slashing & burning government personnel, data, & funding will devastate our ability to prevent & respond to an H5N1 pandemic. Now CAMPP & the AViDD program can be added to my slide on the destruction of American readiness. bsky.app

Scripps Research
Scripps Research· March 3, 2025
@scripps.edu

Scripps Research was featured in the @sandiegouniontribune.com as scientists at the institute’s Pandemic Preparedness Symposium examined the evolving threat of H5N1 bird flu and the urgency of scientific readiness. More:

www.sandiegouniontribune.com
Experts worry that public health turmoil could make bird flu deadlier

Also lost is this AViDD center at Stanford focused on multiple drugs targeting all RNA viruses via a combo of mechanisms: small molecule inhibitors, antisense, & protein drugs. Combination therapies are much less likely to select for resistance mutations. reporter.nih.gov

Development of Outpatient Antiviral Cocktails against SARS-CoV-2 and other Potential Pandemic RNA Viruses

Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Glenn, M.D., Ph.D.
Institute: Stanford University

Award #: U19AI171421

The MAVDA center sought novel drug targets in CoVs, flaviviruses, & alphaviruses like CHIKV. Charlie Rice won the Nobel prize in 2021 for work that led to drugs that cured HCV. I’ve known him since I was a postdoc. He’s brilliant & also a very kind person reporter.nih.gov

Metropolitan AntiViral Drug Accelerator

Principal Investigators: David Perlin, Ph.D.; Charles Rice, Ph.D.
Institute: Hackensack University Medical Center; The Rockefeller University

Award #: U19AI171401

The Midwest AViDD Center at U of Minnesota was doing a lot of sophisticated high throughput screening to find novel antivirals for SARS2 and also hemorrhagic arenaviruses, filoviruses, & flaviviruses. Also a training/outreach component for effective use. reporter.nih.gov

Midwest AViDD Center

Principal Investigators: Reuben Harris, Ph.D.; Fang Li, Ph.D.
Institute: University of Minnesota

Award #: U19AI171954

This center at UCSF is led by world class viral proteomics experts (also shout to Regina, SK, where Nevan is from, so I’ll forgive him for being a Niners fan). They were developing novel targeted drugs for 8 viral families! All gone now. reporter.nih.gov

QCRG Pandemic Response Program

Principal Investigator: Nevan Krogan, Ph.D.
Institute: University of California, San Francisco

Award #: U19AI171110

This goes out to all the lab leakers who have baselessly accused Ralph Baric of making SARS-CoV-2. No. His READDI AViDD Center was making new drugs to treat emerging CoVs & other viruses. He was trying to prevent or end pandemics, not start them. reporter.nih.gov

Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative – AViDD Center (READDI-AC)

Principal Investigators: Ralph Baric, Ph.D.; Timothy Willson, Ph.D.
Institute: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Award #: U19AI171292

Finally this AViDD center at UTMB was targeting proteases and polymerases to develop new drugs against coronaviruses, flaviviruses, & henipaviruses (Hendra & Nipah). All emerging viruses we need better drugs for. reporter.nih.gov

UTMB-Novartis Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

Principal Investigators: Pei-Yong Shi, Ph.D.; Thierry Diagana, Ph.D.
Institutes: The University of Texas Medical Branch; Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research, Inc.

Award #: U19AI171413

These AViDD centers were an investment in our future, developing medicines that we could use to prevent or respond to viral pandemic threats. They employed hundreds of people & contributed to the economy as well as our toolbox of countermeasures. And that’s no longer a priority.

How can the government claim it is making America healthy again when it’s literally shutting down research that would keep Americans healthy from pandemic viral pathogens? We need more ways to treat viral diseases, not less. We need more antiviral drugs.

And how does it benefit the American taxpayer to put hundreds of Americans out of work? I’m not an economist but I’m pretty sure that swelling the ranks of the unemployed is not a good way to boost the economy.

Cutting programs like AViDD makes us less prosperous, less innovative, less competent, less prepared, and less safe. We will have fewer countermeasures to fight emerging viruses. We are falling behind. This is not just a funding cut. It’s an attack on our well-being.

We aren’t helpless here. Congress must step in and insist that appropriations are applied as they have decided. DOGE & Trump do not legally have the right to can programs that Congress paid for. So call your representatives & demand they step up.

AViDD invested our tax dollars in the future health of the American people. I reject a regime that attacks science, puts Americans out of work, & endangers us all on the whims of idiot billionaires with authoritarian ambitions. We should demand the return on our investment.

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