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Tech Valley News
Albany Med College Receives Stimulus Grant
Albany Medical College has been awarded a $4.6 million, two-year American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Program Project Grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The grant will fund the College’s ongoing biodefense research against Francisella tularensis, the bacteria that causes tularemia.
The grant represents one of the largest ever received by the Medical College.
According to the lead investigator, Dennis Metzger, Ph.D., Professor, Theobald Smith Alumni Chair and Director, in the Center for Immunology & Microbial Disease (CIMD) at Albany Medical College, the grant will support three ongoing research projects aimed at finding an effective vaccine to prevent tularemia.
He explains that pulmonary tularemia is considered a Category A (the highest) biothreat by the NIAID because of its high infectivity (very little exposure is needed to cause disease), ease of dissemination, and substantial capacity to cause illness and death.
The bacterium that causes tularemia is naturally present in soil and water, and each year, small outbreaks occur in the United States. Infection via animals or contaminated soil or water usually causes a systemic disease involving fever, swollen lymph nodes and a sore throat, which is easily treated with antibiotics. However when bacteria are breathed into the lungs, tularemia is usually lethal because very small doses can cause significant disease, which is often difficult to treat with antibiotics. “Pulmonary tularemia is the form most likely to be used by bioterrorists. In fact, it was weaponized by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War,” says Dr. Metzger. All research conducted at Albany Med focuses on this pulmonary form of tularemia. There currently is no vaccine against it.
The research projects involve the study of a nasal spray vaccine for pulmonary tularemia. He says the goal is to target the lungs directly. “Gaining protection in mucosal tissue in the mouth and nose and down into the lungs is the first line of defense,” he says. According to Dr. Metzger, they have shown in mouse studies that this approach, using a small amount of inhaled weakened live bacteria as a vaccine, is effective, but now they need to figure out exactly why it works so that they can improve upon it.
In addition to understanding how a nasal spray approach confers immunity against pulmonary tularemia, the scientists will also study the method of delivery and whether vaccines combining killed virus with other boosting substances (adjuvants) may be even more protective and/or safer for eventual human use. In particular, Dr. Metzger is investigating whether a protein called Interleukin 12 (IL-12) alone or in combination with additional substances may be an effective immune system booster in a tularemia vaccine.
Dr. Metzger cautions that this work is considered basic science research and that no vaccine is currently in human trials. However, he says that is the eventual goal.
Other CIMD faculty members involved in this Program Project Grant are Chandra Shekhar Bakshi, PhD., James R. Drake, Ph.D., Edmund Gosselin, Ph.D., Jonathan Harton, Ph. D., Karsten Hazlett, Ph.D., J. Andres Melendez, Ph.D., and Timothy Sellati, Ph.D.
The CIMD of Albany Med recently sponsored the 6th annual International Conference on Tularemia in Berlin, Germany. The conference is considered a top forum for the exchange of knowledge about tularemia. In addition to concern about the agent’s possible intentional usage, there is great worry in some regions of the world where natural tularemia is responsible for epidemics that affect humans and animals.
Overall, Albany Med’s internationally recognized vaccine research programs are funded by grants in excess of $30 million, with the group receiving a total of $11 million in new federal grant money awarded this year alone. In addition to their work on tularemia, scientists are studying better vaccines for several diseases including plague, Lyme disease, childhood bacterial infections, HIV/AIDS, flu, and other pathogens.
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