Copyright (c) Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
| November 8, 2005
Section: Business Edition: Region Page: 8D, 6D Nishad Majmudar |
| Staff writer The University of Rochester Medical Center has received two federal grants totaling $20 million for biodefense research. Those funds, provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, will finance up to five years of research into ways the government can use information technology and biotechnology to create a response and treatment system for a potential bioterror attack. The first grant, worth $10 million, will be put toward creation of a computer model of how the human body might respond to an altered, more dangerous strain of influenza. "The basic idea is that a bioterrorist may use some of the virus or modify some of the flu virus, for example, as a weapon to attack us," said Dr. Hulin Wu, chief of the UR Medical Center's Division of Biomedical Modeling and Informatics and co-director of the modeling program. "The basic idea of the government is that when this thing happens, we want to know how our immune responses will respond to the new virus." Wu, who previously worked on computer modeling of HIV, and Dr. Martin Zand will use collections of data from "in vivo" animal tests and "in vitro" cell culture tests to build a computer simulation of how the human body's immune system responds to new strains of the influenza. One downstream application of the model is in development of anti-bioterrorism drugs. "The project is not to develop a drug or vaccine, it's to create simulation models," Wu said. "But the computer simulation tools can help immunologists or virologists to understand the new virus and develop new drugs." In addition, the medical center said the computer model is a safer way of anticipating the effects of deadly pathogens on humans. While testing an actual altered flu strain on cells would be a more precise way of predicting how a bioterror attack might harm the human body, there is a risk. The strain could end up in the wrong hands despite security precautions taken by medical center laboratories. Wu said he anticipates hiring five to seven faculty members, post-doctoral scientists and computer programmers to work on the project. The data compiled for UR Medical Center's computer model will be shared with other immunologists so that the database can be continuously improved and expanded, Wu said. "The users will be immunologists and probably some mathematical modelers," Wu said. "There will definitely be some government people (using it) and it will be open to the public to use this. "We want to standardize the database for people to access so that the data can be shared. They can use our data produced from our lab and they can add their data into our database." The second $10 million grant will be used to study how to protect people with weaker immune systems, such as children, the elderly or the infirm, from bioterror attacks. People with rheumatoid arthritis, for example, have weakened immune systems. The federal government has increasingly invested in scientific research to understand the harm of potential bioterror agents such as influenza and smallpox and to devise protections. Many of those research dollars have been slated for Rochester's scientists. The latest parcel of grants is on top of $21 million already awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, a division of the National Institutes of Health, to UR Medical Center scientists and other members of the local biotechnology community for bioterror research and preparation. NMAJMUDA@DemocratandChronicle.com What's at stake A safer, more controlled way to develop medical defenses against bioterrorism. A $10 million federal grant will be used by University of Rochester researchers to develop computer models of how humans' health might be affected by bioterrorism. A second $10 million grant will study ways to protect the most medically vulnerable people. |
|
|
Copyright (c) Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc. |