Colorado State University Team Gets $3 Million to Study Vaccines for TB

Researchers at Colorado State University and around the world have been working to develop more effective, longer lasting tuberculosis vaccines. BCG, the vaccine used to inoculate people against the disease, was developed in the 1920s. "It seems to protect children well, but it doesn't work [as well] for adults," said CSU microbiology professor Ian Orme. Out of about 240 vaccine candidates, Orme said about half a dozen have been proven effective in short-term studies. CSU researchers now will examine their long-term effectiveness and safety in a pioneering study funded by a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

"The unique feature of this study is that it combines our knowledge of the molecular biology of tuberculosis with the pathology of the body's cellular response," said pathology associate professor Randy Basaraba, who along with Orme is leading the project.

The research team's goals are to determine precisely how TB vaccines affect lung pathology; determine how the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines changes over the long term; and determine if when the vaccine is given affects lung pathology, effectiveness and safety. Candidate vaccines include those made by mutating the TB bacteria as well as vaccines made from proteins and DNA.

CSU has become a leading center for TB research, in large part due to Orme's efforts. His TB-related work has brought more than $50 million in research support to CSU and led to several scientific breakthroughs. "We're probably one of the few places in the world that can do this, so we get [vaccine candidates] sent in from all over the world," Orme said. "I'm becoming more and more optimistic that we will find something that works. What we have now is promising."

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