GVN Announces Participant of Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

Baltimore, MD, December 12, 2023:  The Global Virus Network (GVN) a coalition comprised of human and animal virologists from 71 Centers of Excellence and 9 Affiliates in 40 countries, announced the recipient of the GVN – Abbott Pandemic Defense Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Funded by Abbott, the fellowship ensures junior scientists receive elite training in the identification of unknown diseases via surveillance, viral genomic sequencing analysis, and bioinformatics. It also contributes to the development of research capacity by expanding participants' research portfolios and creating and establishing connections with scientists from developing countries.

"To help stop viral outbreaks from reaching pandemic proportions, we must use our expertise in infectious diseases to help train more virus hunters who can identify, monitor and respond to these threats,” said Gavin Cloherty, PhD and head of the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition. "Building the capacity for more virologists around the world will pay dividends not only in preparing for a future pandemic but also in better tackling the health issues in the world today."

The only network of its kind, the GVN’s mission includes training future virologists to meet the current, and future, needs of highly qualified, well-trained virologists worldwide.

"The GVN must partner to ensure that the world will never again be unprepared, untrained, ill-equipped, and uninformed to deal with viral threats,” said Sten Vermund MD, PHD, GVN’s President and the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor Public Health at Yale School of Public Health. “Through this fellowship, GVN’s newest postdoctoral fellow will join an independent, global organization committed to the preparedness, defense, and first collaborative research response to important emerging, existing, and unidentified viruses.”

“GVN is our best defense against current viral killers and those emerging on the horizon,” said Christian Bréchot, MD, PhD, GVN President Emeritus, Vice Chairman of the GVN Board, and Associate Vice President for International Partnerships and Innovation at University of South Florida, and Professor at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the GVN Southeast U.S. Regional Headquarters. “We are so pleased to welcome our newest postdoctoral fellow to GVN’s elite training and mentoring program to strengthen the global safety and preparedness network against viruses.”

Since 2019, Abbott and GVN have worked collaboratively to mitigate viral threats and the coronavirus pandemic through the GVN Corporate Partnership program. The Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition was established in 2021 as a first-of-its-kind, industry-led, global scientific network dedicated to the early detection of, and rapid response to, future pandemic threats. The coalition now comprises 20 entities, including networks, governments, and public health organizations on five continents that are actively identifying, analyzing, tracking, and testing viral threats. In this context, GVN and Abbott launched the "GVN – Abbott Pandemic Defense Postdoctoral Fellowship Program" to nurture junior scientists in pursuing their careers in virology and to build a global scientific network in response to the early detection and mitigation of future pandemic threats.

The GVN – Abbott Pandemic Defense Postdoctoral Fellowship supports a two-year post-doctoral training fellowship and offers a rare opportunity for future virology leaders to collaborate with key researchers, medical practitioners and decision makers driving scientific, evidence-based solutions for some of today’s largest challenges in public health. The awardee and host are:

• Karl Ciuoderis, PhD, (Colombia), The University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine, USA—a GVN Center of Excellence

“This is a wonderful opportunity to mix with scientists with different backgrounds and talents,” said Karl Ciuoderis, PhD, “providing a step forward to identify research collaborators, improve on networking and grantsmanship, and strengthen my research experience to be even more productive in science. Truly, it provides a base to the journey I am taking to achieve a successful scientific career.”

“We are pleased to host Dr. Ciuoderis for the postdoctoral fellowship,” said Jorge Osorio, PhD, Director of the Global Health Institute – University of Wisconsin-Madison, “helping him continue to expand his capacities in epidemiology and virology, especially as he will help strengthen the scientific environment in tropical areas such as Colombia, his home country, where viral emerging diseases are a regular threat.”

As part of the fellowship, Dr. Ciuoderis also will be invited to participate in exclusive GVN meetings and other professional development opportunities in virology.

To learn more about GVN’s fellowship program and other activities of the GVN Drs. Yang Liu & Pan Zheng Academy, please visit GVN’s website.

About the Global Virus Network (GVN)

The GVN is essential and critical in the preparedness, defense, and first research response to emerging, existing, and unidentified viruses that pose a clear and present threat to public health. Working in close coordination with established national and international institutions, the GVN is a coalition comprised of eminent human and animal virologists from 71 Centers of Excellence and 9 Affiliates in 40 countries, working collaboratively to train the next generation, advance knowledge about how to identify and diagnose pandemic viruses, mitigate and control how such viruses spread and make us sick, as well as develop drugs, vaccines, and treatments to combat them. No single institution in the world has expertise in all viral areas other than the GVN, which brings together the finest medical virologists to leverage their individual expertise and coalesce global teams of specialists on the scientific challenges, issues, and problems posed by pandemic viruses. The GVN is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, please visit www.gvn.org. Follow us on X at @GlobalVirusNews.

Media Contact:
Kevin Kishpaugh
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