Researchers at UB have recently received an $8.2 million, two-year grant for the research of Ebola and other deadly viruses.
According to a Nov. 9 press release, UB was chosen out of over 400 top medical schools for the U.S. Department of Defense grant.
The grant was requested by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a federal organization created ten years ago to deal with biological weapons of mass destruction (WMD). For many of the biological WMD that exist, there are no working vaccines or antibiotics.
"I think this is a noticeable form of validation for the strategy we've been pursuing methodically over the past five years," said Bruce Holm, senior vice provost and executive director of the Center of Excellence, explaining that the university's goal is to build a prominent life science program in Western New York.
While 400 medical schools applied for the grant worldwide, there are 128 medical schools in the U.S. alone, including prestigious programs such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford.
"I think why we (UB) got the grant and other very highly recognized schools didn't was because we had a combination of a few things," said Ian Hay, professor of microbiology in the school of medicine and biomedical sciences and a member of the infectious diseases research group at the Center of Excellence.
According to Hay, there are many factors that contributed to UB's attainment of the grant, including the university's established disease research program, which is capable of designing the small molecules used as anti-viral agents, as well as the Center of Excellence, which contains advanced medical technology and facilities.
Another factor is the collaboration of several research organizations at UB, including the Calspan University at Buffalo Research Center (CUBRC), the Prosetta Corporation and the Center of Excellence in BioInformatics and Life Sciences.
The grant will be used to study deadly viruses such as Ebola - a deadly, disease-causing agent with a fatality rate of 90 percent. It first broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), and currently has no cure or vaccine.
The research goal is based on research previously done by the Prosetta Corp. - to identify the characteristics of the cells that make up a virus.
"Viruses are very small, dust-sized particles which have a well-defined structure. This structure is very important; if the structure isn't right then the virus won't affect you," Hay said. "So the idea is to find how the structure is put together, and that is essentially what this project is all about."
Hay also noted that the researchers won't work directly with the viruses, but will work with the proteins from the virus, which alone are not infectious or deadly.
Hay added that the research will begin with CUBRC, Prosetta Corp. and the Center of Excellence, where researchers will begin to identify the proteins that make up a virus. The Chemistry Department will then be able to synthesize a molecule that will bind to the protein and stop it from working. This in effect will stop the virus from functioning.
Francis E. Perez, a junior chemical engineering major, said that this type of research could revolutionize the virus research field. Even though this type of research has been attempted, UB would be setting a precedent if it were successful in identifying the virus proteins, according to Perez.
Junior chemistry major Abraham Ramos agreed, adding that the grant will fuel important research that will set UB aside from other top research institutes.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
