Infectious Disease Research
Colorado State University's research grants total more nearly $300 million annually, and the university is one of the nation's most respected land-grant institutions, with extensive outreach translating and sharing new knowledge for economic development, job and wealth creation and improving the quality of life for all people.
Colorado State is a recognized research leader in agriculture, energy and environmental sustainability, water resources and engineering, food production, infectious disease prevention, veterinary medicine, and health and wellness - areas critical to all people.
The university is home to one of the top infectious disease programs in the world. The answers to the great problems that infectious disease pose rely on multidisciplinary approaches to use basic research in new ways. Discovering a new infectious disease vaccine requires laboratory scientist expertise, but also the expertise of economists, political scientists and public policy specialists, social scientists, linguists, ethicists, and manufacturing and distribution specialists if that discovery is ever to be utilized, particularly in developing nations.
The infectious disease research program's current success is the result of a faculty decision to focus their efforts and resources on developing nationally-recognized infectious disease research and training. Colorado State studies targeted human and animal diseases and disease evolution from one host type to another. The new RBL3 laboratory at our foothills campus will expand our research capabilities and provide our Regional Center of Excellence with state-of-the-art facilities.
The discoveries and benefits of university’s infectious disease research is provided to the public via outreach through a variety of university institutions:
- MicroRx, a business enterprise devoted to carrying infectious disease research into industry to develop products that benefit people and animals around the globe.
- Veterinary Diagnostic Center is under construction at the university. The $42 million center will relocate the university’s existing Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory into a 90,000-square-foot building, which is scheduled for completion in December 2009. The building also will house the university's Clinical Pathology Laboratory, Animal Population Health Institute and the Extension veterinarian.
- Animal Population Health Institute encourages collaboration and information and expertise exchange in veterinary epidemiology among scientists at Colorado State, collaborating institutions and government agencies throughout the world. The institute focuses on collaborative, multidisciplinary research to improve the health of animal populations, to prevent and control infectious and other important diseases of animals, and to contribute to national and international animal disease policymaking processes by providing a better understanding of disease epidemiology and pathogenesis.
