| Today's Date: Thursday, August 28, 2008 |
| UBC Wins $1 Million NIH Grant for Chlamydia Vaccine Research |
| Monday, July 14, 2008 |
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Researchers at the University of British Columbia have been awarded a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further their work on a vaccine for Chlamydia, one of the most common yet least visible sexually transmitted diseases in the world. Initial trials of the vaccine in animals have shown success in preventing infection. The NIH grant will enable further refinement of the vaccine and potentially pave the way for human clinical trials. Robert Brunham, UBC Professor of Medicine, and Leonard Foster, Assistant Professor in UBC’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Canada Research Chair in Organellar Proteomics, will receive funding of more than $1 million over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, to further their scientific breakthrough that identified T-cell antigens as a viable Chlamydia vaccine candidate. A T-cell is a type of white blood cell. “This is a landmark investment in the health of women and men across the globe,” said Brunham, who is also the Provincial Executive Director at the BC Centre for Disease Control, an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority. “Our approach represents an important new tool in the arsenal against infectious diseases. With control programs failing in many countries, including Canada, the development of a safe and effective Chlamydia vaccine would represent a fundamental breakthrough in global health,” he said. “The emerging science of proteomics -- the study of proteins that are the building blocks of human life -- will likely underpin life sciences research for the next 50 years,” said Foster. “By using the latest generation of mass spectrometry equipment, we can use immunoproteomics to identify T-cell antigens that appear in Chlamydia- infected cells. As shown by the development of UBC’s Chlamydia vaccine, our proteomics facility can take the guesswork out of vaccine and drug discovery, and hopefully make it easier for vaccines to move out of labs and help those who need them,” he said. Chlamydia infects more than 92 million people globally per year and is often called a “silent” disease because close to three quarters of infected women and about half of infected men have no symptoms. It is linked to 60,000 maternal deaths per year due to ectopic pregnancy and is a major co-factor facilitating HIV transmission, the researchers said. In addition, non-sexually transmitted Chlamydia produces trachoma, a disease that has caused an estimated six million cases of preventable blindness in developing countries. A Chlamydia vaccine has the potential to dramatically reduce treatment expenditures that currently exceed $13.5 billion per year worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.nih.gov. |
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