Worldwide, infectious diseases are the second leading cause of death only after cardiovascular diseases; in Canada, they are a major cause of lost economic productivity and a leading cause of premature loss of life. The SARS crisis highlighted what was missing from BC’s toolkit for responding to a new infectious disease. The importance of being prepared has been reinforced by mad cow disease, avian flu and the recent outbreaks of e-coli. A new initiative, Proteomics for Emerging Pathogen Response (PREPARE) was launched by VGH researchers to create a cutting-edge scientific strategy to develop better drugs and vaccines for emerging infectious diseases. The PREPARE project fills that gap by establishing a new research platform that will accelerate the process of developing new drugs and vaccines. PREPARE will cut the development process from ten years to four.