Pandemic prediction and preparedness

The Pandemic Prediction and Preparedness pillar researches the origins of virus outbreaks and translates the insights into strategies to mitigate risks. There is a focus on predicting, detecting & controlling infectious diseases in changing deltas. Together with hospitals, GGD, municipality and port, researchers will investigate pandemic scenarios and resilience to support the best-working measures.

Prof. Marion Koopmans, Head of the Department of Viroscience at Erasmus MC, is one of the pioneers of this centre. Her research focuses on virus outbreaks, specifically on the transfer of viruses from animals to humans and large-scale outbreaks within the human population.

A couple of years ago, the WHO developed blueprints for future viruses, like coronavirus and Ebola. But also disease X, a hypothetical and entirely unknown pathogen leading to disease in humans. Koopmans wonders: ‘What do we do if something comes along that is completely unknown?’

Apart from fundamental questions from a biomedical perspective, researchers at the Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center (PDPC) are searching for ways to make our society more resilient and pandemic-proof. Koopmans: ‘We need to better prepare for the next threat.’

 

We need to combine the knowledge and creativity of our institutes in order to be better prepared for the future.

Marion Koopmans

Erasmus MC

Scientific Director

Using collaboration

In this video, head of the Department of Viroscience Marion Koopmans, together with her colleague Miranda de Graaf (Erasmus MC), Ewout Fanoy (GGD), Sandra Phlippen (EUR) and Gert-Jan Medema (TU Delft), talks about the sewage project.

The sewage project was started to gain insight into the circulation of the coronavirus and to be better prepared for virus outbreaks. Koopmans: ‘We need to combine the knowledge and creativity of our institutes in order to be better prepared for the future.’