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1. How has UGA been involved with SECEBT?
The College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) and Complex Carbohydrate Research Center were the two initial UGA partner groups in the Southeastern Center for Emerging Biological Threats (SECEBT). Representatives from the CVM have attended every partner meeting and science conference, and have successfully acquired funding from the small grants program during every cycle. The UGA Vice President for Research recently cited affiliation with the SECEBT as a prime example of collaborative success in the study of emerging infectious diseases in the recent Georgia application for the National Bio Agro Defense Facility.
By definition, the SECEBT has spearheaded the development of a regional Center for EID research and surveillance, encouraged interactions among local, state, regional and national public health organizations and academic institutions and supported the development studies to examine region-specific emerging infectious diseases problems. All of these activities have led to the development of numerous new interactions with regional partners. An example is the enhanced interaction between the Emory University ID Division, the UGA CCRC, the Emory School of Public Health and the UGA CVM.
Particular activities that have benefited UGA programs include the small grant program, which has permitted the acquisition of start up funds for several new research endeavors, and the regular symposia that are held on very important current issues.
2. What areas of expertise or current UGA activities would be of particular interest to SECEBT partners?
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) participates actively in interdisciplinary comparative biomedical research based on the premise that veterinary medicine and human health science are linked and complementary disciplines in a continuum of disease related discovery. A growing emphasis on the animal/public health interface is supported through a new DVM/MPH combined degree. Areas of research excellence include animal and zoonotic infectious diseases, as well as poultry infectious diseases and vaccinology. Already prominent, these efforts will rise to a new level with the opening in 2006 of the CVM’s unique BSL-3AG facility – the Animal Health Research Center (AHRC), which will permit studies of infectious diseases in relevant host animals and animal models of human disease.
The UGA College of Veterinary Medicine is affiliated with the NIH Southeast Regional (Region IV) Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease Research (RCE). The CVM has close and currently increasing research ties with the CDC and faculty collaborations with the USDA ARS Southeast Poultry Research Lab (SEPRL) in Athens. Participants in all these organizations have access to CVM biocontainment and vaccine development laboratories. Recent recruitments of former CDC scientists to the CVM include Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Animal Vaccines, Dr. Ralph Tripp, and Dr. Fred Quinn, head of the CVM Department of Infectious Diseases. Dr. David Swayne, director of the USDA ARS SEPRL, has a joint appointment in the CVM’s department of Pathology.
The CVM administers and manages the State of Georgia Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories, providing diagnostic services and disease surveillance. This surveillance includes diseases of public health importance, and the laboratories maintain a reporting relationship with the Georgia Departments of Health and Agriculture and the CDC for diseases such as eastern equine encephalomyelitis, West Nile Virus, and rabies. In addition to their service to the State of Georgia, in 2002 these laboratories were selected as one of five regional laboratories nationwide to form a core diagnostic network linked to the USDA Plum Island foreign animal disease laboratory as first responders in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak. The core laboratories provide first-line confirmatory diagnostic testing services for eight selected foreign animal diseases designated as potentially high risk for biological terrorist attack: foot and mouth disease, hog cholera, highly pathogenic avian influenza, exotic Newcastle disease, rinderpest, African swine fever, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, and lumpy skin disease.
The CVM also administers the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS), which is responsible for wildlife disease surveillance in a 19 state region for agents including West Nile virus and eastern equine encephalitis.
3. What unique resources does UGA bring to the SECEBT partnership?
UGA, with $225M currently in research funding, has strengths in a wide range of programs. UGA resources that can contribute and enhance the activities of the SECEBT include the following:
(1) Expertise in infectious diseases research, surveillance and teaching. This expertise is spread over several organizational units within the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, and Public Health. The Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases is one example of a very successful multi-disciplinary infectious diseases research enterprise, this one focusing on parasitic agents.
(2) The Institute of Bioinformatics, along with collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania, is building and maintaining an integrated database (genomics, proteomics, expression) for biodefense list Category B pathogens (Cryptosporidium and Toxoplasma) and the re-emerging Plasmodium (malaria) species as one of eight NIAID Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRCs).
(3) These and other UGA bioinformatics efforts are advantaged by the Southern Light Rail (SLR), which is hosted by Georgia Tech and other GRA universities and connects these to more than 150 universities, research institutions and other organizations through a nationwide advance fiber optic network.
(4) The Southeast Collaboratory for Structural Genomics has few equals in the world. The NMR facility, a NIH Regional Resource, boasts a rare 800 MHz instrument. The X-ray group hosts the Southeastern Collaborative Access Team (“SER-CAT “), which provides member institutions with access to the advanced photon source at Argonne National Laboratory, and has genuine high-throughput capabilities for proteomics.
(5) The interdisciplinary Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, a world-class resource that investigates structure, metabolism and roles of complex carbohydrates in plants and animals, and also the value of these complex structures as antigens, adjuvants and diagnostic markers/targets.
(6) The UGA Bioexpression and Fermentation Facility (BFF) is a unique asset that offers a full range of services, from design and consultation to delivery of product, and from molecular biology to fermentation process design, and protein purification. The fermentation pilot plant is equipped with 23 bioreactors, allowing a maximum volume of 800 liters, and protein purification is possible at gram scale. The BFF routinely works with industrial clients requiring environmental or pre-clinical biomanufacturing services.
(7) The new $40M Paul D. Coverdell Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, which includes the Biomedical Imaging Research Center with its state-of-the art instrumentation for imaging humans and animals via several complementary technologies (MRI, fMRI and MEG); the Coverdell also includes a new BSL-3 lab and conferencing facilities.
Examples of the breadth of UGA EID & Select Agent (Zoonotic) Investigations
(West Nile Virus): D. Stallknecht, B. Ritchie
(metapneumavirus): R. Tripp
(SARS coronavirus): R. Tripp, T. Hodge, J. Hogan
(Influenza virus): M. Tompkins, J. Hogan, R. Tripp, D. Stallknecht, D. Mead
(Smallpox virus): P. Rohani, D. Chu, V. Nair
(Ebola virus): T. Hodge, J. Hogan
(HIV): T. Hodge, J. Murray, D. Chu
(Bacillus anthrasis): Yi Xu
Clostridium botulinum: J. Coffield, M. Doyle, M. Harrison
(Mycobacterium tuberculosis): F. Quinn, M. Hondalus, R. Karls, C. McCombs
(Mycobacterium paratuberculosis): R. Karls, M. Pence, M. Hines, D. Hurley
(Francisella tularensis): F. Quinn, J. Hogan
(Campylobacter spp.): M. Lee, J. Mauer, S. Sanchez, M. Doyle
(Escherichia coli): M. Lee, J. Mauer, S. Sanchez, M. Doyle
(Salmonella spp.): M. Lee, J. Mauer, S. Sanchez, R. Maier, M. Doyle
(Helicobacter spp.): R. Maier
(Listeria monocytogenes): M. Doyle
(Burkholderia mallei & B. pseudomallei): M. Schell, E. Lafontaine
(Cyclospora cayentenensis): Y. Ortega
(Cryptosporidium parvum): J. Kissinger, B. Striepen
(Toxoplasma gondii): B. Striepen
(Plasmodiuim spp.): J. Moore, D. Champagne, D. Peterson, J. Kissinger
(Trypanosoma bruce)i: R. Tarleton, K. Mensa-Wilmot
Contact information:
David Lee (dclee@uga.edu)
Vice President for Research
Harry Dickerson (hwd@vet.uga.edu)
Fred Quinn (fquinn@vet.uga.edu)
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602
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