Joe Caspermeyer, Media Relations Manager & Science Editor
(480) 727-0369 | joseph.caspermeyer@asu.edu
October 9, 2007
Salmonella-based vaccine project chosen as finalist for Governor’s Innovation Awards
A Biodesign Institute research initiative aimed at advancing global health through the development of new vaccines has been selected as a finalist for the annual Governor’s Council of Innovation Awards.
The Governor’s award finalist in the category "Innovator of the Year Award for Academia," is in recognition of a project led by Roy Curtiss III, director of the institute’s Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology. The goal of the Curtiss research team’s efforts is to benefit humankind by improving the health of individuals, especially children, throughout the world.
"It is a great honor to be nominated for this prestigious award and an even greater honor to have been selected as a finalist," said Curtiss, also a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences. Curtiss leads a worldwide effort to tame Salmonella, a bacterium that is the leading cause of food poisoning, by making Salmonella harmless and then using it to treat a variety of infectious diseases. If effective, this technology has the potential to be used for a range of existing and new vaccines. Current disease targets include pneumonia, hepatitis, tuberculosis, plague and human and avian flu.
Substantial progress on the development of the vaccine against bacterial pneumonia has occurred during the past year and the Curtiss group plans to begin the first human clinical trials with this vaccine in early 2008.
Curtiss is helping to reduce the savage inequity in global health by giving even the world’s poorest children access to affordable, effective vaccines while also providing profound benefits for U.S citizens.
For bacterial pneumonia alone, the statistics are numbing. Bacterial pneumonia kills more children around the world each year than any other infectious disease. It also is to blame for some 700 cases of meningitis, 17,000 blood infections and 5 million middle-ear infections in the U.S., accounting for 30 million physician office visits each year and an estimated $2 billion in treatment costs. It is also a fatal disease for individuals who have lost their spleens as a consequence of rupture due to injury.
In July of 2005, Curtiss received a $14.8 grant one of the largest individual investigator awards in ASU historyfrom the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, funded primarily by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to lead this international research project. Curtiss was the only researcher in the entire Southwest to receive funding (one of 43 international recipients out of 1500 proposals) and is a testament to his world-renowned reputation.
His global team’s goal is to perfect a safe, yet potent vaccine for this lethal pathogen that can be tolerated even by newborn babies and administered as a low cost, heat-stable, needle-free, one-dose solution in a simple eyedropper.
Curtiss’ team has spliced critical parts of pneumococcus essential for causing disease into non-disease-producing Salmonella. Using Salmonella as a Trojan horse, the pneumococci parts normally introduced into the mucosal system through the nose or the mouth now are produced by the Salmonella and head instead to the stomach and intestine. By using the body’s own defense mechanisms to induce immunity, Curtiss achieves a vaccine that offers potential for lifetime protection.
This bacterial pneumonia vaccine project involves more than 100 researchers from the Biodesign Institute and throughout the world a true international effort with collaborators from Australia, South Korea and the U.S. The Curtiss team includes 14 collaborators at 10 institutions: two in Korea, two in Australia and six in the United States. The current pneumonia vaccine used most often in children requires multiple doses over time and only protects against 7 of the estimated 100 serotypes (strains) of the disease; the proposed vaccine would address 95 percent of the strains.
For Curtiss, the Gates Foundation award should be an extra funding push he and his collaborators need to translate decades of basic research into a robust vaccine that’s safe even for newborns. Preliminary studies have been successful this past year and a half, and the team hopes to move the vaccine technology forward to begin human clinical trials within early 2008.
In 2007, Curtiss was named this past summer the "Bioscience Researcher of the Year" at the third-annual Excellence in Bioscience Awards Dinner, sponsored by the Arizona BioIndustry Association.
Curtiss was wooed to ASU’s Biodesign Institute in the fall of 2004 from Washington University in St. Louis. Before coming to ASU, he had obtained 22 patents and garnered more than $42 million in research grants over the course of his career.
Winners will be announced during the awards ceremony on December 6 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The event will commemorate the top technological and business achievements of the year.
The Arizona Technology Council, in partnership with the Arizona Department of Commerce, chose the finalists for the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation in their respected categories. The award recipients were selected by an independent selection committee comprised of local business and academic leaders, based on their contribution to the business and technology community and their technological innovation. One company, within each category, will be announced as the winner on the night of the awards gala.
The 2007 honor represents the fourth year in a row that ASU has been a finalist for the Innovation Award for Academia. In 2006, Biodesign researcher Bert Jacobs and his team, also in the institute’s Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, won the award for a project to create a vaccine that can cure smallpox infections in their early stages and also provide a powerful tool for fighting a host of other viral pathogens, including a new project directed at HIV.
In 2005, the Biodesign Insitute’s Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology won the Innovator of the Year award again for a project led by researchers Charlie Arznten and Tsafrir Mor involving a multi-pronged research effort to prevent HIV infection.
In 2004, the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering’s Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) was also 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.
About the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation The Governor’s Celebration of Innovation was established in 2003 by combining two technology award ceremonies: the High Tech Industry Cluster’s 17-year student awards ceremony and the Arizona Software and Internet Association’s 10-year "Celebration of Innovation." With the addition of the Governor’s support, the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation has become the premier technology community gathering of its kind in Arizona. The inaugural Governor’s Celebration of Innovation took place in November 2003 and was a colossal success with over 1,200 in attendance. For more information visit http://www.celebration-of-innovation.com.
About Arizona Technology Council
The Arizona Technology Council’s vision is for Arizona to be recognized as a top-tier center for technology-based industries and businesses with an education system that produces a best-of-class 21st century workforce. The Council’s mission is to drive partnerships, policies and programs that advance the business climate for Arizona’s technology community. The Arizona Technology Council is the largest member-driven technology association in the state representing the interests of over 200,000 employees across more than 500 of the leading technology companies their support firms, educational institutions and state-wide economic development groups that collectively form Arizona’s technology community. For more information, visit http://www.aztechcouncil.org.
About Arizona Department of Commerce Collaborating with economic development partners statewide, the Arizona Department of Commerce works to create jobs, expand the tax base, increase per capita income and promote a globally competitive business environment. The agency provides reliable information and research, community assistance, targeted business attraction and development coupled with strategic workforce development. Nationally and internationally, the Department of Commerce promotes Arizona assets: a growing, high-tech workforce; competitive operating environment; easy access to major markets; affordable, available real estate; reliable utilities; abundant natural resources and an unmatched quality of life. For more information, visit www.azcommerce.com.
