Phenoms Under 40 - CUA Magazine - The Catholic University of ...

E X P L O R A T I O N SRevolutionizingVaccines,PreventingEpidemicsAbove: Electron microscope reconstruction of abacteriophage T4 showing the knobs on its surface.Imagine it: A terrorist group sprays anthraxor pneumonic plague powder from a planecircling a major metropolitan area. Between80 and 100 percent of the infected populationdie horrible deaths unless they’retreated with antibiotics in the first severalhours or days.Sound far-fetched? The U.S. Centers forDisease Control and Prevention has, infact, put these two diseases on its list ofthose most likely to be used in a terroristattack. And “weaponized” powders ofboth diseases are still stockpiled in Russia,according to many published sources.These facts help to explain why thedevelopment of a single vaccine againstboth these diseases would be crucial andtimely — and why the National Institutesof Health has given CUA biology ProfessorVenigalla Rao a $2.5 million five-year grantto develop just such a vaccine.Rao and his research team feel theyhave reason to be optimistic: They willbe building on NIH-funded research theyhave carried out in collaboration with theWalter Reed Army Institute of Research,in which they created vaccine formulationsthat proved highly effective in mice andrabbits.A single vaccine for these two diseaseswould fill a void. No vaccine exists forpneumonic plague, and the availableanthrax vaccine has limitations, such as ahigh frequency of side effects and the needfor six immunizations within 18 monthsand yearly boosters thereafter.If successful, the dual-disease vaccinewill set a precedent that is likely to leadto single vaccines that simultaneouslyimmunize against three, four or morediseases, according to the CUA professor.“Dr. Rao has had an incredibly productiveresearch career, and is widely recognized asone of the predominant authorities in theareas of molecular biology, immunologyand associated applications such as vaccinedevelopment,” says Dr. Carl R. Alving, chiefof adjuvant and antigen research for HIVvaccines at the Walter Reed Army Instituteof Research, located in Rockville, Md.The CUA professor’s vaccine researchwas born out of his 29-year quest to understandthe molecular machinery and lifecycle of a harmless virus called bacteriophageT4. In the process, Rao discoveredthat the 1,025 infinitesimal knobs on theouter mantle of these viruses could beused to develop novel vaccines. The ideaoccurred to him to attach proteins ofmultiple diseases such as plague andanthrax to these knobs — a bit likeattaching campers to automobile trailerhitches.When such a specially prepared bacteriophageT4 is injected into a person, hisor her immune system would recognizethe attached anthrax or plague proteins asforeign particles and elicit the productionof antibodies to neutralize infection. Theperson’s immune system would thus beprimed to attack and neutralize anthraxand plague without actually being infectedby the bacteria that cause these diseases.Rao and his team aim to create thedual-disease vaccine and test its efficacyon rhesus monkeys by 2014. It is hopedthat the first phase of FDA clinical studiesfor use on humans will follow.Meanwhile, the professor’s devotionto understanding the basic biology of thebacteriophage T4 remains strong. Thissummer he has received a $1 million grantfrom the National Science Foundationand expects additional grants from theNIH — all to continue studying themicroscopic organism’s structure andfunctions.— R.W.S U M M E R 2 0 0 9 9