Anschutz Foundation funds pandemic research at CSU
FORT COLLINS — As COVID mask recommendations return to Larimer County and many counties around the nation, the Anschutz Foundation has awarded a $2 million grant to Colorado State University to work on future pandemics.
The grant is intended to help the university develop new solutions for building resilience and agility in stopping infectious disease transmission among animals and people, according to information provided by the university.
The grant will be funded over two years and will be used to sponsor new interdisciplinary research teams and diverse graduate students, and it will fund one of the first comprehensive cyber biosecurity programs to protect health data in the nation, the university said.
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CSU leaders said increasing diversity on the research teams will be an important component of the gift, building greater equity in the response to infectious disease. Increasing greater participation among first-generation Colorado students will also be a goal of the investments made in building a diverse future workforce, the university said.
“This gift is a vote of confidence in the work that we’ve already done in preventing and minimizing the devastating impact that the transmission of disease between humans and animals can have, as we’ve seen in the past 16 months,” CSU President Joyce McConnell said. “We are so thankful for this gift because it will advance our efforts in this area on several fronts, and it will be transformational in our ability to meet future public health challenges.”
In a written statement, Christian Anschutz, president of The Anschutz Foundation, said CSU’s dedication to the One Health model — which is built around the interconnectedness of animals, humans and the environment — was a key factor in making the contribution.
“We recognize that the integrated, interdisciplinary approach at CSU is key to the future of addressing infectious disease with resilience and agility,” Anschutz said. “This is a way to help ensure that the impact of the next outbreak is quickly minimized — or possibly avoided entirely. A multidisciplined approach is the best way to stop a pandemic.”
Areas of focus include enhanced monitoring and surveillance for the emergence of infectious disease threats that could lead to widespread consequences, more agile production and distribution of countermeasures such as therapeutics and vaccines, social/cultural practices that could influence societal response to outbreaks, and the protection of critical health data used in research and response.
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