MTU to Receive $18.5M to Expand Infectious Disease Research


Michigan Tech will receive $4.3 million to help the state of Michigan expand sequencing for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) announced that MTU is one of four Michigan universities receiving $18.5 million in federal funds over the next two years to collect and analyze genomic data to address emerging infectious disease threats and enhance the state’s ability to respond to those threats.

With Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University, Tech will use the funding to increase sequencing capacity in the state — starting with SARS-CoV-2 and then expanding to other infectious disease threats with potential for broad community spread.

Michigan Tech’s research team includes co-principal investigators Caryn Heldt (ChE/HRI), Dukka KC (CS) and Hairong Wei (CFRES/ICC-BDH, DataS), and senior researchers Kristin Brzeski (CFRES), Guy Hembroff (AC-BDH, CyberS), Kelly Kamm (KIP), Stephen Techtmann (BioSci) and Kui Zhang (Math/ICC-BDH).

Read more at mtu.edu/news.