"Think big, act fast."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Julie Gerberding, M.D. offered four words as the solution for conquering infectious diseases when she visited Seattle this spring.  And thinking big and acting fast is what we strive to do at SBRI.

Six years ago, SBRI's malaria program consisted of fewer than a dozen malaria researchers and a $5 million start-up grant. We leveraged that modest start into the one of the largest – and most prolific – malaria research programs in the world, with a team of nearly 100 researchers.
 

Now, we're working hard to move our first malaria vaccine into human trials and are planning to build a challenge center to test vaccine candidates here at SBRI. We won't stop there: we have other malaria vaccine candidates steadily moving down the pipeline with our sights set on developing new anti-malarial drugs.

We're replicating the model – and the success – of our malaria program in both HIV/AIDS and TB research.  Our expertise in HIV neutralizing antibodies is essential to creating effective vaccines. And we're focusing on developing faster acting, less expensive TB drugs.

Thinking big and acting fast keeps SBRI at the forefront of discovery as infectious diseases continue to hold global health hostage. We know the measure of our success will not be in the number of papers we publish or talks we give, but in the number of lives saved. We embrace this challenge and hope you'll join us.

Kenneth Stuart, Ph.D.,
President & Director

July 2007