Duke University has received a USD 4.8 million NIAID U54 award to establish a Center for Multiscale Immune Systems Modeling, reflecting sustained federal investment in computational frameworks capable of linking molecular-level immune dynamics to population-scale infectious disease outcomes.
The center integrates three research projects spanning biological scales. One project applies molecular dynamics simulations to antibody-antigen interactions to understand constraints on immune repertoire evolution. A second uses agent-based models of lymphoid tissue to examine how immune cells respond to viral infection at the cellular level, informing host-pathogen dynamics in individual hosts. A third bridges individual-level host-pathogen models to stochastic epidemic models across heterogeneous populations. Target pathogens include HIV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and Epstein-Barr virus — a selection that spans chronic infection, pandemic respiratory disease, and oncogenic herpesvirus biology. A dedicated informatics core will develop shared data and model repositories, with generative deep learning integrated across projects to improve predictive accuracy.
The U54 cooperative center mechanism, administered through NIAID's modeling program, is designed explicitly for outbreak responsiveness — the administrative core includes an Opportunities Fund to support rapid-response modeling proposals across NIAID-sponsored groups. This positions the center as infrastructure for the broader infectious disease modeling community, not solely a single-institution research program. Principal investigators Roger Keith Reeves and Cliburn C Chan lead the effort, which runs through May 2030.