National Security and Public Health
Protecting western Pennsylvania and the nation from threats to public health is a critical part of UPMC’s mission. UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh are well positioned as national and international leaders in bioterrorism, preparedness, research, and response, and have developed the Center for Biosecurity at UPMC.
UPMC’s contributions to regional, national, and international biodefense needs and responses will be initiated in the Pittsburgh region, and have the potential to be exported throughout the world.
Center for Biosecurity
The Center for Biosecurity provides independent, critical research and analysis to inform decision-makers in government, national security, bioscience, medicine, public health, and private industry. The Center works to affect policy and practice in ways that lessen the illness, death, and civil disruption that would follow large-scale epidemics, whether they occur naturally or result from the use of a biological weapon.
The experts at the Center publish research findings and regularly serve as consultants to government agencies, businesses, academia, and the media for independent analyses of issues pertaining to national and global epidemic preparedness and response.