Solutions through Highly Integrated Engineering and Life Sciences for Defense (SHIELD)

bioreactor — The SHIELD team toured the Colorado State University RIC-GMP facility in April 2016. The campus in Ft. Collins is home to the Infectious Disease Research Center directed by Dr. Ray Goodrich.

Solutions through Highly Integrated Engineering and Life Sciences for Defense (SHIELD) is a multi-institutional, cross-disciplinary consortium of scientists, engineers and educators with expertise in: biomanufacturing, biosensing and pathogen/toxin decontamination; pedagogical practices that support inclusive STEM workforce development; and science communication for diverse stakeholders. The SHIELD research consortium was formed as an outcome of the Phytoengineering Research Center workshops funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF EEC-1840476) and the UC Davis College of Engineering.

The mission of the SHIELD Consortium is to create a research and training ecosystem that will enable innovative engineering-driven platforms for response to unknown, or unanticipated, biological and chemical threats.

SHIELD research and scholarly activity will focus on the development, assessment and optimization of:

biosensors/biothreat detection technologies
countermeasures for medical, veterinary and agricultural applications
training programs supporting innovation, entrepreneurship and workforce development in bioengineering and plant-based bioprocessing systems
stakeholder engagement practices (government, academia, industry and communities) to facilitate rapid technology deployment in times of crisis (e.g. IP, regulatory, logistical, clinical/end-user training)

SHIELD will significantly improve national defenses against naturally-occurring emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and intentional acts of bioterrorism, protecting lives, human and animal health, food and water supplies, and societal infrastructure (e.g. military defenses, community first responders, energy grids).

csu tour — SHIELD Members at CSU Ft. Collins - April 2019

SHIELD Consortium Leadership and Core Collaborators

Leadership Team

The SHIELD Consortium is led by senior faculty and administrators from institutional partner universities who maintain active research and education programs focused on one or more aspects of the SHIELD mission. These individuals will have primary responsibility for administering the SHIELD Consortium, strategic visioning, writing grants, securing foundational funding, curating consortium membership and facilitating the activity of Core Collaborator working groups:

Deloris Alexander (Tuskegee University)
Ray Goodrich (Colorado State University)
Denneal Jamison-McClung (UC Davis)
Karen McDonald (UC Davis)
Alison McCormick (Touro University)
Somen Nandi (UC Davis)
CS Prakash (Tuskegee University)

Professor Alison McCormick (Touro University) talks about her work on plant-made vaccines and therapeutics at the December 2018 PERC/SHIELD Workshop (Putah Creek Lodge, UC Davis).

SHIELD Brainstorm — The December 2018 PERC/SHIELD Workshop was definitely a working meeting! We spent many hours in Putah Creek Lodge discussing and outlining the key translational research, workforce development, student training and science communication challenges facing the plant-made products community.

SHIELD Working Groups and Core Collaborators

To accomplish the SHIELD mission, the leadership team and core collaborators will participate in working groups to develop and implement project activities across six key areas. Each working group will be led/co-led by ~1-2 core collaborators who will facilitate working group meetings and communications, track progress towards working group milestones, and identify appropriate funding/collaborative research opportunities:

Education/Workforce Development (K-to-Gray)/ Diversity and Inclusion
- Deloris Alexander (Tuskegee University)
- Natalia Caporale (UC Davis)
- Marcella Cuellar (UC Davis)
- CS Prakash (Tuskegee University)
- Jason White (UC Davis)
Community/Stakeholder Engagement and Bioethics
- Natalia Caporale (UC Davis)
- Roland Faller (UC Davis)
- Karen McDonald (UC Davis)
- Stephen Sodeke (Tuskegee University)
Convergent/Strategic Research/Testbeds
- Adam Arkin (UC Berkeley, LBNL)
- Gregory (Chris) Bernard (Tuskegee University)
- Willard Collier (Tuskegee University)
- Abhaya Dandekar (UC Davis)
- Marceline Egnin (Tuskegee University)
- Roland Faller (UC Davis)
- Jesse Jaynes (Tuskegee University)
- Rebekah Kading (Colorado State University)
- Coleman Kronawitter (UC Davis)
- Michael Ladisch (Purdue University)
- Alison McCormick (Touro University)
- Karen McDonald (UC Davis)
- John Mizia (Colorado State University)
- Vivek Mutalik (LBNL)
- Somen Nandi (UC Davis)
- Christopher Snow (Colorado State University)
- Ambarish Kulkarni (UC Davis)
- Vijay Rangari (Tuskegee University)
- Allen Smith (Tuskegee University)
- Priya Shah (UC Davis)
- Jill Steinbach-Rankins (University of Kentucky - Louisville)
- Mark Stenglein (Colorado State University)
- Daniel Tuse (DT Consulting)
- Monique Van Hoek (George Mason University)
- Jiandi Wan (UC Davis)
- John Wycoff (Colorado State University)
Translation/Commercialization
- Ray Goodrich (Colorado State University)
- Somen Nandi (UC Davis)
- John Wycoff (Colorado State University)*
Teaming
- Hannah Love (Colorado State University)
- Jennifer Cross (Colorado State University)
Communications
- Denneal Jamison-McClung (UC Davis)
- Vivek Mutalik (UC Berkeley/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
- C. S. Prakash (Tuskegee University)

SHIELD Workshops

Rebekah Kading 2018 — Assistant Professor Rebekah Kading (Colorado State University) gives an overview of her research on the ecology and transmission dynamics of vector-borne arboviruses at the December 2018 PERC/SHIELD Workshop (Putah Creek Lodge, UC Davis).

Mark Stenglein 2018 — Assistant Professor Mark Stenglein (Colorado State University) gives an overview of his research on human and animal viruses at the December 2018 PERC/SHIELD Workshop, (Putah Creek Lodge, UC Davis).