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SCOTT P. LAYNE, MD, is a Professor of Epidemiology and of Environmental Healh Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health (SPH). He is known for cross-disciplinary work involving biology, physics, and policy-related issues, and has authored over 45 publications, including three U.S. patents on methods to access and operate high-throughput laboratories.

Dr. Layne is the Principal Investigator of the Center for Rapid Influenza Surveillance and Response (CRISAR), which is one of six NIAID Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS). With $20.1 million over five years, CRISAR will undertake national and international surveillance on animal and human derived influenza strains, and will actively contribute to NIAID's Pandemic Public Health Research Response Plan. Participating institutions include UCLA, University of California Davis (UCD), University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Dr. Layne is also leading the development of the UCLA High Speed, High Volume Laboratory Network for Infectious Diseases in collaboration with Los Alamos (LANL). The program, funded by congressionally directed Department of Defense investments and a grant from the California Office of Homeland Security (press release) that amount to $30 million, will improve the nation's ability to make rapid and critically important decisions to save lives in the event of bioterror attacks or infectious disease outbreaks. The laboratory will enable public health experts to track diseases in near real time and dramatically shorten the time needed to produce effective vaccines. The program will expedite widespread collection and testing of influenza samples within a few days of collection and thereby guide emergency outbreak control efforts. The laboratory will test and analyze many more viruses than are currently examined by state laboratories and enhance capacity should laboratories be overloaded.

Dr. Layne is an editor of Firepower in the Lab: Automation in the Fight Against Infectious Diseases and Bioterrorism (Joseph Henry Press, 2001) and also of Jane's Chem-Bio Handbook, 2nd and 3rd editions. In 1988, he organized the workshop A National Effort to Model AIDS Epidemiology for the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and oversaw the publication of a White House Report that influenced AIDS research priorities in the United States. In 1999, he also organized the meeting Automation in Threat Reduction and Infectious Disease Research: Needs and New Direction under the auspices of the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering. In August 2008, he was appointed to be a Member of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee (roster) as authorized under Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-21 (White House).

Dr. Layne teaches graduate level courses at UCLA on infectious diseases (EPI 220) and public health responses to bioterrorism and pandemic influenza (EPI 226). He is also an instructor on bioterrorism preparedness for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and lectures throughout the country in this capacity.

Dr. Layne received a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from DePauw University in 1976 and Doctor of Medicine from Case Western Reserve University in 1980. He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, with a fellowship in adult infectious diseases. He served as a postdoctoral fellow and staff member at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) from 1982-1986, as a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) from 1986-1992, and maintains guest scientist status at LANL.

WHITE PAPER Release1.0 (pdf)
This white paper summarizes our activities, progress to date, and work to come on the High Speed, High Volume Laboratory Network for Infectious Diseases and Center for Rapid Influenza Surveillance and Research at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). It emphasizes that implementing near real-time, global and (what aspires to) transparent surveillance of infectious diseases is an essential next step for human health and security. It also explains how our efforts will enable this next step, first at one laboratory site and then at multiple networked sites. Cited on-line materials and references at the end provide additional information.

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