Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin coordinates research consortia across human and veterinary medicine in the context of OneHealth.
For instance, DFG focus program 1596 deals with ecology and species barriers of emerging viral diseases. The RAPID consortium funded by the German ministry of research and education tries to develop novel approaches to risk assessments in relation to emerging respiratory viruses, exemplified by the MERS agent. RAPID is part of the National Research Network on Zoonotic Infections. Within the German Centre for Infection Research, we conceptualize a work program on emerging virus detection and preparedness. We are members of the European Union consortia COMPARE, dealing with sequencing-based virus surveillance, as well as PREPARE dealing with clinical preparedness against pandemic infections. We are a founding member of the European Virus Archive (EVAg), an EU infrastructure facilitating the provision of reference virus material for research and development purposes.
An essential part of our work is based on collaborative research in tropical countries. As a partner of EU consortium ZikAlliance we deal with major epidemiological features of the Zika epidemic in South America. The mentioned DFG focus program conducts field work in Panama. The institute is represented with several projects in the DFG Africa Infectious Diseases program (projects in Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya) and hosts a junior group on ecology and emergence of arboviruses that works in Uganda. This group is also a member of a collaborative research centre (CRC/TR228 Future Rurual Africa) at the universities of Cologne and Bonn. Our groups are continuously developing new research activities in the African and American tropics.