VCU joins $350 million bioterriosm study

By Mike Frontiero and Gregory Buck

RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Commonwealth University has been selected to join a national consortion of biomedical research institutions established by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to help combat bioterrorism. 

Eight Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, or RCEs, were established with a five-year, $350 million grant, $42 million of which will go to the Middle Atlantic RCE -- a consortium of more than 60 scientists from 16 research institutions including VCU. The VCU project will apply nearly $1 million of the grant to decode the Cryptosporidium parvum genome and identify potential vaccines for the bioterrorism agent.

“We have moved with unprecedented speed and determination to prepare for a bioterror attack or any other public health crisis since the terrorist attacks of 2001,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. “These new grants add to this effort and will not only better prepare us for a bioterrorism attack, but will also enhance our ability to deal with any public health crisis, such as SARS and West Nile virus.”

Cryptosporidium is a parasitic protozoan in the gut of vertebrates, including humans. It causes a severe watery diarrhea and no treatment is available. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies as a potential agent of bioterrorism because it is highly infectious, very difficult to control, and has no effective treatment. In the spring of 1993, Milwaukee, Wis. experienced the largest outbreak of waterborne disease ever reported in the United States. More than 400,000 people became ill with cryptosporidiosis, at least 4,000 were hospitalized, and over a hundred deaths were reported.

Cryptosporidia can contaminate public drinking water supplies because the organism is extremely resistant to normal water treatment procedures,” said Gregory A. Buck, Ph.D., director of the VCU Center for the Study of Biological Complexity and a professor of microbiology and immunology. “Once contaminated, water supplies are extremely difficult and expensive to clean up. Most municipal water systems in the United States, including Richmond, screen for it, especially since the terrorist attacks of 2001. Significant contamination could be catastrophic for a city or other municipality.”

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is providing the grants and will administer the RCE program. “Since the terrorist attacks on American soil in 2001, NIAID has moved rapidly to bolster basic biomedical research and the development of countermeasures to defend the U.S. against deliberately released agents of bioterrorism as well as naturally occurring infectious diseases,” said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., NIAID director. “The new RCE program provides a coordinated and comprehensive mechanism to support the interdisciplinary research that will lead to new and improved therapies, vaccines, diagnostics and other tools to protect the citizens of our country and the world against the threat of bioterrorism and other emerging and re-emerging diseases.”

VCU is already in the final stages of decoding the genome, according to Buck, who is the lead investigator on the VCU project. Buck and Ping Xu, Ph.D., a fellow of the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity and associate professor of microbiology and immunology at VCU, are working with their colleagues to screen the genome for genes that will be tested for potential use as vaccines

In addition to VCU, the Middle Atlantic RCE includes the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Virginia, the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, West Virginia University, Drexel University, the University of Vermont, the University of Missouri, Kansas City, the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also has awarded a $1.5 million grant to VCU to provide continuing education for health professionals to better respond to bioterrorism emergencies. For more information, see www.vcu.edu/uns/Releases/2003/sept/091603.html.