Infectious Disease

Joel Collier and colleagues at the University of Chicago in the U.S. will design and test self-assembling peptide vaccine materials that are stable in the face of significant temperature fluctuations. These self-adjuvanting systems may be more easily distributed to the developing world than current temperature-sensitive vaccines.

Panduranga Rao and Nagendra Hegde of Ella Foundation in India will develop and test for use in a vaccine a live single-cycle poliovirus that has been modified to eliminate the gene essential for replication. This highly disabled virus will be tested for its immunogenicity and its inability to re-emerge as vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV).

Samuel M. Duboise of the University of Southern Maine in the U.S., along with colleagues in Kenya, will develop a vaccine platform that uses bacteriophages that are structurally stable in one of Earth's most extreme environments - the hypersaline alkaline soda lakes of Kenya's Great Rift Valley. Vaccines produced using these engineered bacteriophages are expected to be inexpensive, stable, and easy to produce in regionally dispersed locations using common microbiological and biochemical methods that are highly scalable and adaptable for "just-in-time" production.

Christopher Vinnard of Drexel University in the U.S. proposes to develop a low-cost point-of-care urine test that can safely and accurately identify tuberculosis patients who poorly absorb anti-TB drugs. Testing patients for inadequate drug bioavailability could enable better drug dose optimization and decrease transmission rates.

Lawrence Braack of the University of Pretoria in South Africa seeks to demonstrate that malarial mosquitoes in Africa have a strong preference for biting on ankles and feet, and by protecting the lower legs and feet of people who are active outdoors in the early evening with repellants and insecticides, a major reduction in transmission of malaria could be achieved.

Pavan Muttil of the University of New Mexico in the U.S. will test the theory that inhaled live BCG immunization will elicit a stronger and more sustained immune response in mammals that have been exposed to mycobacteria than conventional intradermal BCG immunization. The new administration method could overcome the present variable protection to tuberculosis offered by the current intradermal technique.

Hossam Haick of Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Israel is developing a sensing plaster that can be stuck on the chest to detect volatile biomarkers emitted through the skin for self-diagnosis of tuberculosis even at early stages. The presence of tuberculosis will be signaled by colored LEDs. In Phase I, they evaluated different materials and selected non-toxic nanomaterial-based sensors. They also performed a study of healthy people and tuberculosis patients and identified several candidate volatile compounds that could be detected by the sensors.

Lilian Waiboci of the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention- Kenya will use new technology to screen respiratory specimens from hospitals in Kenya for 21 pathogens, bacteria and viruses that all cause lower respiratory tract illnesses. Data generated from these screens will allow for better tracking of circulating pathogens, inform more effective treatments, and potentially reduce the development of drug resistance.

Pingshan Wang of Clemson University in the U.S. will develop and test an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) sensor that uses radio-frequency interference to boost its sensitivity for the detection of malaria pigment in a single red or white blood cell. Such devices could allow for accurate and quantitative malaria diagnostics with blood or non-invasive finger-tip test systems.

Catherine Ronet and Mary-Anne Hartley of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland will target a naturally occurring RNA virus in Leishmania parasites (LRV) that not only aids parasite survival, but also causes a destructive inflammatory response in humans. They will develop and refine a LRV diagnostic device and formulate the virus as a vaccine candidate for the prevention and treatment of the leishmaniasis.