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Joining leaders in biodefense

UB scientists participate in NIH summit on bioterrorism

Published: July 25, 2002

By LOIS BAKER
Contributing Editor

Scientists from UB described their work with biological agents and their research in developing methods to counteract them at a National Institutes of Health biodefense summit held last week to assess promising bioterrorism research and set funding priorities.

Bruce Holm, senior vice provost and head of a newly formed SUNY-wide task force on bioterrorism, headed the team.

Norma Nowak, director of UB's microarray facility, and Iain Hay, chair of the UB Department of Microbiology and an expert in infectious diseases, also presented.

UB is part of the Chemical, Biological and Radiological Technology Alliance formed to help the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases set the agenda for the new biodefense research effort mandated and funded by Congress.

3M is the lead industrial partner of the alliance. Additional members are Becton Dickinson, Black & Veatch Solutions Group, Inc., Calspan UB Research Center (CUBRC), Cargill, General Dynamics, Honeywell International, Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory, Lucent Technologies, Mayo Clinic, Motorola, RAE, Syracuse Research Corp. and Veridian.

UB representatives discussed the university's expertise and that of its collaborators in four areas related to the use of biological agents:

  • Developing fast and effective devices for detecting bioagents in the air. UB is working with HandyLab to bring to market a hand-held device that combines HandyLab's "lab-on-a-chip" technology with the work of UB microbiologist Anthony Campagnari in bacterial pathogenesis and the chemical and biological defense expertise within CUBRC.

  • Microarray expertise in assessing the effects of certain biological agents on cells, information needed to develop mechanisms to block those effects

  • Development of molecular models of proteins in biological agents that would help scientists understand how to block those proteins, which will be advanced through the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics

  • Novel methods of presenting vaccines that make them more potent and more useful, such as slow-release agents that provide long-term immunity; direct delivery to specific sites—like the lungs in the case of anthrax—and incorporating adjuvant agents to increase immunity

Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute also are partners with UB in these efforts.

"Between the strengths we've developed at UB through our Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, our work to develop new schools of Public Health and Informatics, and the technological spin-offs that have been coming from our bioengineering initiatives, we are in a prime position to respond to the biodefense initiatives developing on the national level," Holm said.