Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases

Research Cores

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BU Launches an Open-Source Infectious Diseases Monitoring Tool Powered by AI and Human Experts

Housed at CEID and operated in partnership with BU's Hariri Institute for Computing and Data Sciences and HealthMap at Boston Children’s Hospital, BEACON is a new artificial intelligence–powered surveillance platform developed to monitor and analyze infectious diseases threats around the world.

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Events

Thursday, October 30, 2025

The Climate Crisis and the Future of Infectious Diseases

4:30PM 665 Commonwealth Ave, Room 1750, Boston, MA (hybrid)
Thursday, November 13, 2025

Collapse and Resiliency: The Inside Story of Liberia’s Unprecedented Ebola Response

1:00PM 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Room CTC 446
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In The Media

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Impact Counter

Designed by CEID faculty Dr. Brooke Nichols, Impact Counter estimates the number of additional lives that will be lost due to cuts to US funding of foreign aid. Read more from The Brink and BUSPH about this project.

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Publication Highlights

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Center News

Virus Intelligence & Strategic Threat Assessment: New global collaboration uses experts and AI to spot the next pandemic

OSLO, SEP 4 —Global health and pandemic experts are banding together to combine their AI programmes and infectious disease knowledge to more accurately rank the viruses that have the potential to cause the next deadly pandemic. The new partnership will see the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and University of California, Davis (UC Davis) working […]

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PRESS RELEASE – Infectious disease surveillance platform BEACON launches beta version as a new open-source global resource

APRIL 23, 2025FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT:CASSANDRA KENNEDYMEDIA@BEACONBIO.ORG Infectious disease surveillance platform BEACON launches beta version as a new open-source global resource BOSTON, MA – The Biothreats Emergence, Analysis and Communications Network (BEACON) leverages advanced artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLMs) and a network of globally based experts to rapidly collect, analyze, and disseminate information on […]

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Infectious Diseases At A Glance

33 %

of annual deaths worldwide are attributed to infectious diseases (Journal of Infection, 2023)

over half

of the world's population cannot obtain essential health services (World Health Organization, 2017)

60 %

of emerging infectious diseases that are reported globally are zoonoses (World Health Organization)

47 %

of the world's population have little to no access to diagnostics (The Lancet, 2021)