The Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Ecology Lab (IDEEL) was established in 2015 by a group of investigators with the shared goal of advancing the understanding and control of infectious diseases that disproportionately affect underserved populations worldwide. IDEEL is a collaborative, interdisciplinary research network founded at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Brown University, with partnerships that now extend across multiple countries and institutions. Co-founded with the support of the late Steven Meshnick, MD, PhD, the idea was to provide a platform for collaborative interdisciplinary research that explores how pathogens interact with human hosts.

The laboratory was created to facilitate innovative research at the intersection of epidemiology, ecology, genomics, and infectious disease biology. IDEEL brings together investigators from diverse scientific disciplines, including infectious disease medicine, epidemiology, molecular parasitology, cell biology, genetics, and geography, to investigate the complex interactions among pathogens, hosts, and their environments.