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| October 3, 2008 |
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IN THIS ISSUE:
CDC joins collaborators in planning grants program | It's all in the details | Virus Dx in 60 seconds | Blazing the PD-1 trail | Coming attractions at the Crossroads of Global Health |
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CDC joins collaborators in planning grants program
The Georgia Research Alliance has awarded 16 Collaboration Planning Grants for fiscal year 2009. The grants promote joint university-based research and commercialization projects that have the potential to lead to significant non-state R&D funding in fields related to next-generation vaccines and therapeutics. More than $1.5 million in grants went to 16 research project teams, which are collaborations of researchers at Emory, the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, the Medical College of Georgia, Mercer University, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is the first year that CDC researchers were eligible to participate in the program.
"We are particularly excited about the involvement of the CDC in the program. Collaboration among our universities and the CDC allows us to address pressing issue of global health more aggressively," said GRA President and CEO Mike Cassidy.
Funded projects focus on a wide range of disease targets, including Alzheimer's, cancer, Chagas, cytomegalovirus, diabetes, hepatitis B, HIV, influenza, meningitis and tuberculosis. In addition to vaccine development, projects focused on vaccine delivery, animal models, vectors, adjuvants, diagnostics, transplantation and basic immune response. back to top
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It's all in the details
Elizabeth R. Wright, Ph.D., has joined the Emory University School of Medicine as a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator.
Dr. Wright's research focuses on the use of cryo-electron microscopy to examine the structural and biochemical details of viral-cell systems. A goal is to develop viral-based delivery methods for the introduction of targeted agents, chemicals and genes or other macromolecules into cells.
For the past five years, Dr. Wright has served as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology. She is returning to Emory where she earned her Ph.D. in chemistry.
The Distinguished Investigator program is designed to bring "rising stars" who are "shaping their field" to GRA's partner universities in support of the Next-Generation Vaccines and Therapeutics Initiative. back to top
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Virus Dx in 60 seconds
Using nano-scale biosensors, a team of researchers at the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech has developed a diagnostic test that can detect viruses as diverse as influenza, HIV and RSV in 60 seconds or less. According to team leader Dr. Ralph Tripp, a GRA Eminent Scholar at the University of Georgia, the test can save days to weeks. "You could actually apply it to a person walking off a plane and know if they're infected," he said.
The technique, surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, works by measuring the change in frequency of a near-infrared laser as it scatters off viral DNA or RNA. This change in frequency, named the Raman shift for the scientist who discovered it in 1928, is as distinct as a fingerprint, but the signal produced is inherently weak. Using a method they have patented, the team has also been successful in significantly amplifying the signal.
Dr. Tripp and his colleagues, with the help of GRA's VentureLab program, have formed a company, Argent Diagnostics, Inc., which is developing the technology. Company co-founders also include Dr. Richard Dluhy and Dr. Yiping Zhao of the University of Georgia and Dr. Lawrence Bottomley at Georgia Tech. back to top
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Blazing the PD-1 trail
GRA Eminent Scholar Rafi Ahmed at Emory University is the Program Director for a $13 million NIH grant to investigate the cellular, molecular and immunological properties of cell surface inhibitory receptor programmed death (PD-1). The goals are (1) to learn more about how PD-1 regulates chronic viral infection and provides targets for treatment of HIV infection and (2) to explore the implications of PD-1 function and regulation for the treatment of tumors, autoimmunity, and successful transplantation. Researchers from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, New York University, the University of Montreal and the University of Pennsylvania are collaborators in the project. back to top
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Coming attractions at the Crossroads of Global Health
The world’s largest event for the biotechnology industry comes to Atlanta May 18-21, 2009. The Biotechnology Industry Organization’s International Convention attracts more than 21,000 business leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, reporters and public officials. Attendees at the 2008 convention in San Diego represented 70 nations and 48 states, with 2,100 companies exhibiting along with by some 70 country and state pavilions. The 175 breakout sessions included 1,000 speakers. New in 2009 will be a conference track focused on all aspects of vaccines, including development, delivery, manufacture, business models, policy and global challenges. For details as they develop, go to www.convention.bio.org. back to top
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