At least a month before Florida recorded its first case of COVID-19, the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute had a diagnostic test ready for research purposes. This was not a random one-off slam dunk; it was by design, one of the institute’s many dividends from investing 14 years into pathogens research.
Since the institute’s inception, EPI Director J. Glenn Morris Jr. has held an enduring vision to foster interdisciplinary research teams that span UF’s campus — and the globe — to tackle investigations of pathogens that infect people, animals and plants.