Fig 1.
An organizational overview of the SRC at BRI.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds over 20 institutes and centers, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). NIAID administers a Resources for Researchers program with a subdivision dedicated to funding the production of biological materials. Several resources are supported by this mechanism, including the Schistosomiasis Resource Center (SRC). The SRC (and other resource centers, some omitted for clarity) generates research reagents that are sent to Biodefense and Emerging Infections (BEI) Resources, which was developed in 2011 to provide a web-based portal to search inventory and facilitate online ordering. Laboratories around the world interested in studying schistosomiasis are able to obtain SRC-generated reagents through BEI.
Fig 2.
Schematic of molecular materials available from BEI Resources.
A variety of molecular materials derived from all life stages of three Schistosoma species (S. mansoni, S. haematobium, and S. japonicum) and infected host species are available as indicated. Items 10, 11, and 12 are future products.
Fig 3.
The geographic locations of requests for SRC-generated molecular reagents from 2011–2016.
Requests for SRC-generated molecular reagents have come from 15 countries over the years 2011 through July 2016. Shown is the percentage of total requests attributable to each country. The United States as a whole accounts for 66.7% of all items ordered, distributed as shown among the Northeast (Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania), South (Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia), Midwest (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin), and West (California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah).