--- title: Researcher Awarded $1M From NASA to Develop Disease Forecasting Center and App date: 2022-06-23T14:00:00-04:00 author: University of Maryland canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/researcher-awarded-1m-from-nasa-to-develop-disease-forecasting-center-and-app" section: Articles --- # Researcher Awarded $1M From NASA to Develop Disease Forecasting Center and App *June 23, 2022* — by [Maria Herd M.A. ’19](/author/maria-herd) > Rita Colwell’s Distinguished Career Culminates in Project Predicting and Preventing Cholera *Rita Colwell 04222013 4475 1920x1080 — NASA funds awarded to Distinguished University Professor Rita Colwell (left) will support the launch of a disease forecasting center at UMD that will help to predict outbreaks of cholera (below) and other deadly infections.* NASA has awarded $1 million to a renowned University of Maryland expert on cholera prevention and transmission to develop the first internet and app-based decision-making systems for infectious diseases, followed by a climate disease forecasting center. The project led by Rita Colwell, a Distinguished University Professor in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, will be the application and culmination of her five decades of research on the bacterial infection of the small intestine, typically spread through contaminated water. Known as the 19th century’s pandemic, cholera has killed hundreds of millions of people and still takes 130,000 lives every year, mostly in underdeveloped countries with poor sanitation or areas hit by natural disasters. Colwell discovered that the source of *Vibrio cholerae* bacteria is water abundant with plankton, and that it can linger there between epidemics by entering a state of dormancy. Her discoveries helped establish a new field—bacterial zoonosis—and changed scientists’ understanding of how diseases can be transmitted from aquatic organisms to humans. She also developed state-of-the art techniques using satellite images to predict outbreaks, so that countries with limited budgets can mobilize health care workers and resources to stop the disease. Through remote sensing, computational biology and genomics, Colwell’s scientific advancements have saved thousands of lives and improved public health on a global scale. \[*[With Quiet Resolve, a Scientist Who Changed the World’s Understanding of Cholera Stands Up to Her Field’s Sexism](https://today.umd.edu/double-infection-fighter-861d3d06-59c6-462f-8167-016916ea0b44)*\] *cholera* **Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research) **Tags:** [Biology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/biology), [Computer Science](https://today.umd.edu/topic/computer-science), [Public Health](https://today.umd.edu/topic/public-health), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research) **Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)