{"65920":{"#nid":"65920","#data":{"type":"news","title":"NIH Awards $5 Million for Development of Hemorrhagic Fever Vaccines","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded nearly $5.4 million to a collaborative team of scientists at Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Texas Biomedical Research Institute to develop vaccines for prevention of deadly hemorrhagic fevers.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe project focuses on the development of an effective vaccine for Ebola and Marburg virus infections, two members of a family named \u0022filoviruses\u0022 because they produce long filamentous particles.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe lead investigators include Richard Compans and Chinglai Yang at Emory University, Mark Prausnitz at Georgia Tech, and Jean Patterson and Ricardo Carrion at Texas Biomedical Research Institute.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Compans, \u0022These viruses cause severe hemorrhagic fevers with up to 90 percent mortality, and can be passed via person-to-person contact, thus posing a high risk in case of an epidemic outbreak as well as a possible bioterrorism threat.\u201d\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn ongoing research, the Emory group has developed virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines to prevent virus infection, and has shown that the Ebola VLPs stimulate immune cell activity and induce strong antibody responses, indicating that such VLPs could be effective vaccines to induce protective immunity against infection. They also have found that immunization with a mixture of DNA and VLP vaccines (DNA\/VLP) induced higher levels of protective immune responses in comparison to immunization with either vaccine alone.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We consider this to be one of the most promising and safest approaches to protecting against hemorrhagic fever viruses,\u0022 said Patterson, chair of the Department of Virology and Immunology at Texas Biomedical Research Institute.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition, the researchers are testing these vaccines with a new skin delivery technology developed at Georgia Tech that could further increase such responses, with the aim of having a vaccine that can confer rapid and long-lasting protection against Ebola and Marburg virus infection. The results will identify the most effective candidate vaccine for human trials. The successful development of this vaccine strategy may also lead to vaccines against other viral hemorrhagic fevers, which still lack effective vaccines.  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Administering these vaccines with a microneedle skin patch may increase the effectiveness of the vaccine, as well as potentially make vaccination simple and painless,\u0022 said Prausnitz, professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University produced this news release.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts\u003C\/strong\u003E: Holly Korschun, Emory University (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:hkorsch@emory.edu\u0022\u003Ehkorsch@emory.edu\u003C\/a\u003E)(404-727-3990) or John Toon, Georgia Tech (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E)(404-894-6986).\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded nearly $5.4 million to a collaborative team of scientists at Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Texas Biomedical Research Institute to develop vaccines for prevention of deadly hemorrhagic fevers.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new grant advances the fight against hemorrhagic fever infections."}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2011-05-02 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:38","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-05-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2011-05-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"65921":{"id":"65921","type":"image","title":"Marburg virus virion","body":null,"created":"1449176884","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:08:04","changed":"1475894585","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:05","alt":"Marburg virus virion","file":{"fid":"192429","name":"ttj75176.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ttj75176_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ttj75176_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":81147,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ttj75176_0.jpg?itok=kQiF9g4e"}}},"media_ids":["65921"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.chbe.gatech.edu\/faculty\/prausnitz.php","title":"Mark Prausnitz"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.chbe.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Chemical \u0026 Biomolecular Engineering"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"13022","name":"Ebola"},{"id":"13020","name":"hemorrhagic fever"},{"id":"13021","name":"Marburg"},{"id":"495","name":"Mark Prausnitz"},{"id":"7496","name":"microneedles"},{"id":"2076","name":"NIH"},{"id":"763","name":"vaccine"},{"id":"13023","name":"virus-like particle"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=jt7\u0022\u003EContact John Toon\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-6986\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jtoon@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}