UB is becoming a major player in the effort to eliminate terrorism, specifically bio-terrorism, by leading the way in the development and discovery of vaccines against biological agents, such as smallpox and anthrax, according to UB Vice President of Research Kenneth M. Tramposch.
Senior Vice Provost Bruce Holm is leading the newly formed SUNY-wide task force on bio-terrorism and was dispatched to Washington on Tuesday after the Office of Homeland Security elevated the national terror alert warning from code yellow to code orange, the second highest warning level.
Due to his position in the task force, he must meet regularly with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, said Holm.
The National Institute of Infectious Disease has made $1.5 billion available to researchers in hopes of curbing the bio-terrorism threat, in light of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 and last year's anthrax attacks, according to Tramposch.
"$1.5 billion is a pretty significant sum, and it is going to continue for several years, in terms of that increase of the budget, and it's strictly for bio-terrorism research and emerging infectious diseases," Tramposch said.
UB stands out among other research universities in this field, as no other institution has put together a team of researchers like the one found at UB, according to Tramposch.
A collaboration of four departments at UB - the Department of Microbiology, the School of Pharmacy, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Dental Medicine - is trying to establish a Vaccine Discovery and Development Center, he said. To do so, they are currently drafting a grant that will secure part of the money made available by the NIID.
"This is a grant proposal where we will be willing to take things that are used in known vaccines against some of these nasty agents like smallpox and anthrax, and put them through some technology platforms, that we have at this university . to try to improve these vaccines and to get products out in an early time frame," he said.
The proposed center aims to submit the $2 million to $4 million grant in November, said Tramposch. It will take eight to nine months before the center will find out if the grant has received approval.
He noted that the researchers at UB are working with parts or "sub-units" of viruses and organisms that can be used to generate vaccines rather than conducting experiments on the infectious diseases themselves.
With the research and development occurring at UB, the university is becoming a leader in a field that is in its beginning stages, said Tramposch.
"When it comes down to it, there are not that many people around the world that have worked with anthrax, or plague bacteria, or smallpox," he said.
