University of Virginia Health System

$3.6 MILLION STATE GRANT FUNDS COLLABORATION TO RESEARCH EDIBLE VACCINES AND TREATMENTS

A $1.8 million grant from Virginia's Commonwealth Technology Research Fund, matched by $1.8 million from three recipient universities, will fund new research into how vaccines and therapies for infectious and autoimmune diseases can be engineered for delivery through plant consumption.

Scientists at the University of Virginia Health System, Virginia Polytechnical Institute and State University in Blacksburg and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond have received $600,000 each from the state government fund (CTRF) and $600,000 from their own institutions to combine their expertise in mucosal immunology, plant biotechnology and bioinformatics, three newly developing areas of research.

For the three-year study, each university will add a key faculty member who is a specialist in a crucial slot needed for developing the vaccines. We're all very dependent on each other's expertise, said principal investigator William A. Petri, Jr., chief, Division of Infection Diseases at U.Va.

VCU has a huge program that looks at infectious diseases occurring at mucosal sites, and an extensive program in bioinformatics, he said. They can sequence an infectious organism's genome and analyze each one of thousands of genes for changes in expression to see which few are specifically turned on in order for it to colonize a host. Those few genes are the ones you'd want to make an immune response from.

U.Va.'s expertise in how the immune system works will enable vaccines to be designed correctly, Petri said. Many infections enter the body through mucosal routes, whether the intestines or the lungs, for example. Some scientific evidence shows that if you vaccinate someone in the arm, it doesn't give good immunity in the lungs or the intestines. So a vaccine to protect the intestines that is edible and goes directly to the intestines may have a better likelihood of success.

U.Va. will hire a mucosal immunologist who specializes in the role of intestinal dendritic cells, which were recently discovered to control how lymphocytes, the main cells responsible for providing immune capability, respond to different disease-fighting antigens. The immunologist will design vaccines that either stimulate antibodies or change immune system regulation for a cell-mediated immune response, Petri said.

Petri is continuing a National Institutes of Health-funded study, begun in 1999, to produce a vaccine in genetically engineered tobacco to fight off a parasitic disease, amebiasis, which is prevalent in underdeveloped countries with unclean water. This study launched the U.Va.-Virginia Tech collaboration that the new grant is expanding.

As an agricultural school, Virginia Tech has an extensive program in creating transgenic plants, which very few places in the country have, Petri said. Petri's research partners are Gregory A. Buck, professor of Microbiology and Immunology at VCU and Craig L. Nessler, professor and head, Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology and Weed Science at Virginia Tech. Two biotechnology companies affiliated with Virginia Tech, Croptech and Techlab, will contribute expertise in plant biotechnology for delivering pharmaceuticals and diagnostic testing for infections and inflammation.

The state has funded this study as a resource for any scientist who is interested, Petri said. The immunologist we bring to U.Va., for example, can also work with our Digestive Health Center of Excellence, which is researching inflammatory bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease, with the U.Va. Beirne Carter Immunology Center and with the Division of Infectious Diseases. Statewide, the project will offer a symposia every year to publicize advances in mucosal immunology and involve more scientists.

The Commonwealth Technology Research Fund (CTRF) funds high technology projects with potential to benefit Virginia economically.

All of us are extremely grateful to have this support, especially at a time of budget cuts when state support is very dear. We feel a tremendous responsibility to use this support wisely, Petri said. The dollar we spend today on better science and better health can , in 10 years, earn $20 for the state. All three universities are pushing the bounds of what can be done today, and this collaboration will take us to a new level of innovation.

March 18, 2002