NEWS

UNC to partner with five other universities in $45-million federal biodefense initiative

By LESLIE H. LANG
UNC School of Medicine

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will join a consortium of researchers from six universities in the Southeast in a new $45-million biodefense initiative, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials announced today (Sept. 4).

The Southeast Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease (SERCEB) will be financed by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Homeland Security. The consortium will work to develop the next generation of vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests against emerging infections such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, and to defend against organisms such as smallpox that might be used in bioterrorist attacks.

Along with UNC investigators, SERCEB will include researchers from Duke University Medical Center, Emory University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Florida and Vanderbilt University.

The consortium will be centered at Duke University and led by Dr. Barton Haynes of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. Its co-leaders are Dr. Frederick Sparling, J. Herbert Bate professor of medicine and professor of microbiology and immunology at UNC’s School of Medicine; Dr. David Stephens of Emory University; Dr. Richard Whitley of the University of Alabama-Birmingham; Dr. Richard Moyer of the University of Florida; and Dr. Mark Denison of Vanderbilt University.

"We are pleased to contribute our expertise to this important and timely initiative," said Dr. Jeffrey L. Houpt, dean of UNC’s School of Medicine and chief executive officer of UNC Health Care. "The consortium has assembled some of the nation’s most exceptional investigators in infectious diseases and immunology."

The centers will develop and conduct programs of basic and applied research, train researchers and other personnel for emerging infection and biodefense research activities, and develop and maintain comprehensive scientific core facilities to support their research and training activities.

SERCEB also will maintain and make available core facilities and other support to approved investigators from the region’s academic institutions, industries and government agencies. These investigators will be able to perform basic research and test and evaluate vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics for emerging infections and select agents.

The consortium’s initial work will focus on developing new vaccines, diagnostics and treatments for orthopoxviruses (including smallpox and monkeypox), Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) and Y. pestis, the bacteria that causes plague.

At UNC, consortium member Dr. Robert E. Johnston, professor of microbiology and immunology and director of the newly established Carolina Vaccine Institute, will lead research aimed at development of an orthopoxvirus vaccine that would cross-protect against variola, monkeypox, weaponized vaccinia, camelpox and other orthopoxviruses. The vaccine will be built around a disabled and safe version of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, or VEE, which Johnston helped pioneer as a vaccine vector.

Also at UNC, Dr. Jenny P. Ting, Alumni distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology, will investigate and develop strategies to optimize the innate immune response to select agents.

"Through our collaborative efforts toward the development and testing of new vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, we hope to better protect the nation against emerging infectious diseases and potential bioterror threats," Houpt said.

Research is targeted to begin this fall at the six SERCEB member institutions. Government partners with the SERCEB teams will include the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the NIH. In addition, research team members from the University of Michigan and Tulane University will collaborate with SERCEB investigators.

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School of Medicine contact: Les Lang, (919) 843-9687 or llang@med.unc.edu