ASU's Biodesign Institute Honored at Governor's Celebration of Innovation Awards

Joe Caspermeyer, Media Relations Manager & Science Editor
(480) 727-0369 | joseph.caspermeyer@asu.edu

 

At a sold-out event, Governor Janet Napolitano and Arizona’s technology leaders presented the Innovator of the Year Award for Academia to the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology in the Biodesign Institute at ASU.

Accepting the center’s award was Tsafrir Mor, whose team created a novel immune agent that elicits a protective immune response in mouse models of HIV.

"I thank the award committee and the Governor for selecting our project from among the many nominated and short-listed ventures," said Mor, also an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at ASU.

The HIV vaccine program is part of a larger, two-pronged research thrust to prevent HIV infection. A second team, led by Charles Artnzen, co-director of the center, is pursuing a $7.4 million, National Institute of Health funded project to develop novel plant-derived microbicides - topical medications that would be able to kill or block sexually-transmitted viruses at the point of contact.

"We believe plant-based options will be easier and cheaper to produce and that microbicides provide an innovative approach in the potential to fight the spread of AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases," said Arntzen, also the Florence Ely Nelson Presidential Endowed Chair in Plant Biology and Regents Professor in the School of Life Sciences.

Global health organizations have urged greater investment in microbicide research given their suitability for use in the developing countries where HIV rates are highest. In addition, the development of an oral vaccine, which is the ultimate goal of Mor’s project, would offer significant promise and hope to protect the general population against AIDS.

The genesis of Mor’s innovation came from a rare phenomenon known in the world AIDS research community.

"We’ve known for some time that there are a small number of individuals who appear to be resistant to HIV infection despite repeated exposure, and that these individuals have specific antibodies to a portion of the viral envelope in their mucosal secretions," said Mor. "The challenge was figuring out how to stimulate the production of these antibodies."

Mor and his colleagues solved the challenge through a feat of protein engineering, fusing a portion of the HIV envelope protein gp41 to a non-toxic component of the bacteria that causes cholera. The use of the bacterial subunit is critical in activating the mucosal immune system, the entry point for HIV and body’s first line of defense against HIV. The gp41 protein, together with another protein called gp120, form a harpoon-like structure that fuses the viral and cell membranes, allowing the HIV virus to invade the cell. The novel immunogen elicited antibodies directed against the gp41 protein, and these antibodies were shown to block the transport of HIV-1 across the mucosal barrier as well as infection of target cells by the virus.

While the center’s two HIV projects are distinct, progress in each has complemented and advanced the other. "It’s important to attack the problem from different angles because many layers of protection from HIV may be required to effectively stop its advance," said Mor.

The research draws on the expertise of a variety of ASU researchers with diverse backgrounds in pursuit of technical innovation, scientific achievement and commercial viability. The research activities are housed in the Biodesign Institute, School of Life Sciences and ASU’s Polytechnic Campus. The vaccine program also established a public-private partnership with MAPP Biopharmaceutical of San Diego and one of the National Vaccine Testing Centers at the University of Maryland.

Other project and core leaders included in the award are Hugh Mason, Steve Slater, Richard Mahoney and Linda Lopez at the institute, Larry Zeitlin and Kevin Whaley of MAPP, Carol Tacket of the University of Maryland, and Morgane Bomsel of the Institut Cochin in Paris. Key members of Mor’s research team include Nobuyuki Matoba, Brian Geyer, Irene Cherni, Michele Mittman, Tagan Griffin and Jacquelyn Kilbourne.

Mor and his colleagues next challenges are to enhance the effectiveness of the vaccine, test oral delivery using plant-derived production, and generate additional data needed to move the vaccine toward human trials scheduled for fall of 2006.

Besides garnering the Innovator of the Year Award, the Biodesign Institute also represented ASU at the awards ceremony with the Center for Neural Interface and Design’s RUPERT project among the other finalists.

The third generation of this robotic arm, which aids in the rehabilitative therapy for victims of stroke, is being developed by center director Jiping He, in collaboration Tempe start-up Kinetic Muscles, Inc. and Tom Sugar, Thanassis Rikakis, Todd Ingalls, Loren Olson, and Don Herring of ASU.

"It’s a great pleasure to see innovation being recognized and I congratulate all of our researchers for a job well done, "said George Poste , director of the Biodesign Institute."

Another ASU finalist was the Decision Theater, a state-of-the-art public policy venue.

The honor marks the second year in a row that ASU has garnered the Innovation Award for Academia. Last year, the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering’s Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) was bestowed with top honors for their iCARE research project, which has developed several projects to help people who are visually impaired recognize text, people and environments.

The annual awards event is presented by the Arizona Technology Council, the Arizona Department of Commerce, the Arizona Aerospace and Defense Industry Association and the Southern Arizona Tech Council. More than 1,100 people attended the third annual event, which was held at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix on November 15. The Governor’s Celebration of Innovation received nominations from more than 100 business and academic innovators from around the state.