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 PI of SERCEB. At this same time, Dr. Richard Moyer of the University of Florida was named Co-PI of SERCEB. In early 2008, Dr. Sparling requested and received permission from NIAID Program to change the prime institution from Duke University to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 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, Dr. Joe St. Geme of Duke University, and Dr. Phil Hanna of the University of Michigan as members of the SERCEB Steering Committee. This Steering Committee is the governing body SERCEB. They are supported by a Scientific Advisory Board of external peer reviewers and Program Officers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

 

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 re-emerging infectious diseases.