Infectious Disease

Juan Cubillos-Ruiz at Weill Cornell Medical College in the U.S. will develop silica nanopore-based assays to capture unique low molecular weight proteins and identify biomarkers associated with host resistance to HIV. Identifying these biomarkers present in the small proportion of HIV-infected individuals who are able to suppress the virus over the long term could lead to new understanding of the processes mediating HIV resistance and to new therapies against the disease.

Jennifer Andrew of the University of Florida in the U.S. will develop a non-invasive diagnostic platform for the detection of tuberculosis (TB). Nanoparticles will be attached to a polymer matrix to form a dry powder for delivery by inhalation to the lungs, where the presence of TB-infected cells will stimulate nanoparticle release. A simple test strip will detect the presence of released nanoparticles in urine within four hours as a rapid field-based TB diagnostic.

Elizabeth Maga of the University of California, Davis in the U.S. will develop genetically modified goats to produce milk rich in lysozyme. This will test the theory that lysozyme, an antimicrobial component of human milk, can mitigate the detrimental effects of malnutrition by inducing resistance to diarrheal disease.

Janet Hapgood of the University of Cape Town in South Africa will use ex vivo primary epithelial cell models and cervical tissue explants to investigate how different progestins currently used in contraceptives might affect susceptibility to and transmission of HIV-1.

Wendy Picking and a team at Oklahoma State University in the U.S. will work to develop a new vaccine for Salmonella that uses a serotype-independent Salmonella antigen combined with an adjuvant to deliver immunity against all serotypes of the bacteria. This vaccine, when administered intradermally, could be a cost-effective way to reduce the overall incidence and severity of diarrhea in children in the developing world.

Arturo Casadevall of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the U.S. will work to develop a new vaccine for tuberculosis that uses an arabinomannan-protein conjugate to elicit strong antibody-mediated immunity. M. tuberculosis has a polysaccharide capsule composed of arabinomannan, which, when used as part of a vaccine, could lead to an immune response that prevents inflammation and disease transmission without impairing clearance of the bacteria.

Brad Stone of the Benaroya Research Institute in the U.S., along with Sean Murphy of the University of Washington, will produce large and complex "mini-gene" libraries of DNA fragments encoding thousands of peptides from malaria parasite proteins, and use them for rapid production and testing of complex malaria vaccine formulations.

Joshy Jacob of Emory University in the U.S. will test the hypothesis that immunizing newborns with soluble rather than particulate antigens will overcome maternal- mediated suppression of infant immune responses to vaccines. By overcoming the ability of maternal antibodies to suppress vaccine-induced immunity, vaccinations could be given earlier, accelerating protective immunity in the first few months of life.

Anthony Baughn of the University of Minnesota in the U.S. will test a library of cyclic peptides to identify small molecules that impair the ability of the tuberculosis- causing bacterium M. tuberculosis to develop resistance to current drug therapies, for use in a new class of tuberculosis antibiotics.

Thomas Neumann of Nortis, Inc. in the U.S. will develop a tissue-engineered model of the mosquito midgut for use in an in vitro assay on a disposable, chip-like microfluidic device. This device could be developed into a standardized and automated platform to screen anti-malarial compounds that target the parasite in the mosquito before transmission to human hosts.