Thursday, March 30, 2023
News on Pathogens and Preparedness
Global Biodefense
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Global Biodefense
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured News

UGA Wins Gates Foundation Grant to Study Norovirus

by Global Biodefense Staff
November 5, 2014
Norovirus Vaccine Research

Norovirus. Credit: Shutterstock

The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine announced recently that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ralph A. Tripp, a professor of infectious diseases, will lead a team in pursuit of innovative global health and development research on norovirus, a highly infectious causing up to 200,000 deaths a year in children under 5 years of age in developing countries.

Tripp and his research team are receiving $100,000 to engineer mammalian cell lines that support norovirus and related enteric virus replication by silencing non-essential virus resistance genes in vaccine cell lines.

While researchers have made advances in studying the virus and identifying some control measures, no efficient cell line exists currently to support studies for vaccine and therapeutic development.

“Norovirus is a common cause of acute gastroenteritis in humans, with greater than 22 million cases occurring in the United States annually,” Tripp said. “There are numerous challenges in culturing human noroviruses, a feature that has hindered vaccine and therapeutic development.”

Tripp’s study has the potential to provide novel platform enabling tools, specifically fully permissive mammalian cell lines that will fundamentally change disease intervention strategies for human norovirus and potentially other enteric viruses.

“Our research team has received several Gates Foundation grants to develop enhanced vaccine cell lines to facilitate the eradication of polio virus and to control other vaccine-preventable diseases-including measles virus and rotavirus,” he said. “We have successfully developed these enhanced vaccine cell lines using RNA interference platform-enabling technology and are confident we can apply this to meet the needs for norovirus.”

The project team is comprised of faculty from UGA and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Victoria, Australia. The project’s co-investigator is Carl Kirkwood, an associate professor at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute. Kirkwood leads the Enteric Virus Research Group, which is internationally recognized for its contributions to the understanding of enteric diseases, including norovirus and rotavirus.

Grand Challenges Explorations funds individuals worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Tripp’s project on “Engineering Mammalian Cell Lines to Support Human Norovirus and Related Enteric Viruses” is one of more than 60 Grand Challenges Explorations grants announced Nov. 4 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Source: UGA College of Veterinary Medicine, adapted.

Tags: AwardsNorovirusVaccines

Related Posts

Medical Countermeasures

Scientists Design Molecule to Slow SARS-Cov-2 Infection

March 29, 2023
Partner Therapeutics’ Novel Approach to Stratify Sepsis Patients Gains Backing From BARDA
Funding News

Biopreparedness Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) Initiative Backed by $105M DOE Funding

January 25, 2023
Influenza Proteins Tilt and Wave in ‘Breath-like’ Motions
Pathogens

Influenza Proteins Tilt and Wave in ‘Breath-like’ Motions

January 25, 2023
DARPA Selects Teams to Develop Vaccine Durability Prediction Model
Medical Countermeasures

DARPA Selects Teams to Develop Vaccine Durability Prediction Model

January 13, 2023
Load More

Latest News

Scientists Design Molecule to Slow SARS-Cov-2 Infection

March 29, 2023

Biodefense Headlines – 26 March 2023

March 26, 2023
Biodefense Headlines – 12 March 2023

Biodefense Headlines – 12 March 2023

March 12, 2023
Partner Therapeutics’ Novel Approach to Stratify Sepsis Patients Gains Backing From BARDA

Biopreparedness Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) Initiative Backed by $105M DOE Funding

January 25, 2023

Subscribe

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Subscribe

© 2022 Stemar Media Group LLC

No Result
View All Result
  • Featured
  • COVID-19
  • Funding
  • Directory
  • Jobs
  • Events
  • Subscribe

© 2022 Stemar Media Group LLC