Campus joins fight against bioterrorism
BY Ajay Singh
UCLA Today Staff
The threat of bioterrorism — the poisoning of water, air
or food systems by terrorists — has loomed large over the
nation, especially since 9/11. Partly in the hope of warding off
or blunting such possible attacks, UCLA was recently awarded $6
million by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
part of the National Institutes of Health.
UCLA is among a consortium of more than a dozen universities and
research institutes in California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii that
will receive a total of $40 million over four years to establish
the Pacific-Southwest Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious
Diseases Research, based at UC Irvine.
Conducting basic research will be an important part of the center’s
activities, said Jeffery F. Miller, professor and chair in the Department
of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics (MIMG). Holder
of the M. Philip Davis Chair in Microbiology and Immunology, he
also serves as the center’s associate director for basic research.
Infectious diseases remain the second leading cause of morbidity
and mortality in the world, said Miller, adding that his laboratory
will strive to increase its understanding of how bacterial pathogens
function. By working on an organism that causes pneumonia and septicemia
and also is a potential source of bioterrorism, Miller said his
team hopes to develop a precise understanding of mechanisms of pathogenesis.
Developing methods to detect, treat and prevent diseases caused
by potential agents of bioterrorism are long-term goals of the research.
All this will call for wide-ranging safety and security precautions,
as required under federal regulations. One aspect of that will be
“high-level bio-containment precautions,” said Miller,
which means that laboratory conditions will be tightly controlled
and designed to protect lab personnel from infectious agents, while
ensuring that all the agents remain within the lab in a foolproof
manner.
The center is one of 10 federally funded regional hubs conducting
research to counter threats from bioterrorism and infectious diseases.
It will be headed by Alan Barbour, a UC Irvine professor of medicine
and microbiology renowned as the co-discoverer of the bacterium
that causes the insidious tick-borne Lyme disease.
The center’s mission will be to strengthen research into
potential sources of bioterrorism, such as anthrax and botulism,
and naturally occurring infectious diseases like dengue and West
Nile virus, which are rising worldwide. The center will also provide
scientific know-how and facilities in the event of a national emergency
such as a terrorist attack or an epidemic of infectious disease.
Six other UCLA researchers will also receive research funding.
They are Marcus Horwitz, professor of medicine and MIMG; Yong Chen,
professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Adrian Casillas,
assistant professor of medicine; Joel Ward, professor of pediatrics,
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; Hartmuth Kolb, associate professor of
molecular and medical pharmacology; and Ronald Stevens, professor
of MIMG.
The importance of studying pathogens has been a long-standing concern
of scientists. “Much of what we learn will be applicable to
many different diseases,” said Miller. “In a general
sense, the events that transpired in the fall of 2001 are another
reminder of the incredible importance of infectious diseases, whether
anthrax, AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria.”
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