A national and international network

The Institut des Epidémies as a national and international reference laboratory.

T

he pooling of human and material resources within the Institute of Epidemics will constitute a melting pot of expertise capable of embracing all the functions critical to the anticipation, surveillance, detection, monitoring and epidemiology of epidemic diseases. Preparing for future health crises presupposes that "know-how" has been disseminated in advance ("in peacetime") and in a professional manner to national and international governance structures. With this in mind, the project's promoters are already seeking the support of the University and regional authorities in their bid to become an official Reference Laboratory or Collaborating Centre of the World Organisation for Animal Health, a National Reference Laboratory of the Federal Public Service for Public Health and an accredited external laboratory of the FASFC.

There is no question of the Institute of Epidemics positioning itself as a "competitor" to Sciensano, the federal public health body, but rather of providing complementary expertise in close collaboration. The strength of the Institute of Epidemics lies in the fact that it brings together a group of university researchers whose vocation is to work upstream of public health bodies. Complementarity with Sciensano will come from the Institut des Epidémies' ability to :

• implement active epidemiological surveillance in the field
• identify and characterize new pathogens and pathogen strains
• develop animal models in which these pathogens can be studied
• develop new diagnostic methods (screening and assessment of immune responses to pathogens) and make them accessible
• train future players in the field of epidemics/pandemics

The effectiveness of the Institute of Epidemics can only be based on well-established scientific core competencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of technological solutions were provided by researchers involved in basic research. The two main reasons why these researchers are particularly well equipped to deal with societal crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic are i) their flexibility (they are part of small, flexible structures that are not subject to heavy regulatory constraints) and ii) their in-depth knowledge of existing technologies, past and present (not just in their day-to-day use, but in their fundamentals). The Institute of Epidemics will therefore also house fundamental research activities, the main themes of which are as follows:

• Cellular and molecular biology of microbes
• Pathogenesis of infectious agents
• Host responses to pathogens
• Cellular and molecular immunology
• Antigen and antibody production
• Production and quality control of biological reagents (e.g. enzymes)
• Immune evasion
• Diagnosis and treatment of infectious and immune diseases
• Evolution and epidemiology of pathogens
• Vaccine development
• Emerging pathogens
• Non-infectious epidemics such as allergies
• Resistance to antimicrobial agents (antibiotic resistance)
• Microbiome
• Public health and the One Health approach
• Biosafety