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Emory University School of Medicine Receives $16 Million NIH Grant
to Lead Biodefense Consortium Aimed at Vaccine Development
ATLANTA Emory University School of Medicine has received a grant of
$16 million to lead one of five national Cooperative Centers for Translational
Research on Human Immunology and Biodefense announced today by the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Other institutions
in the Emory center include the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle,
Washington; the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona,
Switzerland, the Mayo Clinic, and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
The four-and-a-half year grant is part of $85 million in NIAID awards
aimed at a better understanding of the human immune response to potential
agents of bioterror and rapid development of counter measures such as
vaccines and therapies. The translational centers will focus on moving
new findings about immune system function out of the laboratory and
into clinical trials. The Emory-led projects will include studying the
human immune response to a vaccine in its entirety, from innate responses
to peak immune responses, to the development of long-term immune memory;
understanding how a successful vaccine works and using that knowledge
to design strategies to enhance vaccine efficacy; and understanding
at a cellular level how vaccines lose their effectiveness over time
so as to improve the responses of the elderly to vaccination.
:Scientists in the Emory consortium will use genomics and proteomics
to study the molecular signatures of vaccine-induced innate and adaptive
immune responses, says Rafi Ahmed, PhD, director of the Emory Vaccine
Center, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, and principal investigator
of the Emory grant. "These molecular ‘signatures’ will help us differentiate
between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ vaccines," Dr. Ahmed explains. "And this knowledge
should allow us to manipulate these immune responses to either enhance
immunity in the case of vaccines and immune therapy or to decrease immune
responses in autoimmune diseases, transplantation and gene therapy."
This comprehensive research collaboration provides us with a unique
opportunity to investigate the entire range of human immune responses,
from the laboratory to the clinic, and to develop new technologies that
will allow us to move beyond our present capabilities in designing effective
vaccines to address the increasing challenges of emerging infections
and human-caused biothreats," said Dr. Ahmed.
The other four national Cooperative Centers for Translational Research
on Human Immunology and Biodefense are led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,
the Institute for Immunology Research in Dallas; Stanford University
School of Medicine; and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Scientists in Emory University’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center also
recently received approximately $12 million as part of a $45 million
NIAID grant for a Southeastern Regional Center of Excellence for Emerging
Infections and Biodefense (SERCEB), led by Duke University.
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