The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University announced today that it has received a U.S. $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Biodesign researcher Stephen Albert Johnston, titled “Preventing HIV Backwards.”
Dr. Stephen Albert Johnston
Johnston’s project is one of 104 grants announced by the Gates Foundation for the first funding round of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help scientists around the world explore bold, new solutions for health challenges in developing countries. The grants were provided to all levels of scientists in 22 countries and five continents.
To receive funding, Johnston showed in a two-page application how his idea falls outside current scientific paradigms and could lead to significant advances in global health if successful.
Despite more than 25 years since the initial discovery of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, there is still no cure in sight. While previous efforts have focused on preventing AIDS by blocking HIV infection or making vaccine candidates from parts of the virus, Johnston’s project rethinks the problem from a new angle.
“Our immune system seems particularly incapable of thwarting HIV attack. I think this justifies exploring an unconventional vaccination strategy. The goal of our project is to develop a vaccine that would prime the immune system to target and kill HIV infected cells,” said Johnston, director of the institute’s Center for Innovations in Medicine and a professor in the School of Life Sciences. “The novelty is that the composition of this vaccine will not be made from elements of the virus, but rather, the aberrant proteins the infected host cell makes because of the HIV infection.”
Since Johnston’s strategy focuses on identifying proteins in the body that are only produced upon HIV infection, these proteins would be tested for their ability to specifically target and kill HIV infected cells. Once found, these proteins could be used as the basis to make a vaccine to prevent AIDS.
The Gates award stems from a similar expertise Johnston’s team at the institute’s Center for Innovations in Medicine is using during a five-year, $8.1 million project funded by the Department of Defense and Keck Foundation to develop a preventive vaccine against cancer.
“Fortunately, this is essentially the same procedure we have applied to cancer cells, so the infrastructure for its execution is in place. Disturbed cells, whether in HIV infection or cancer, make aberrant proteins, that is, proteins not produced at significant levels by normal cells. We believe the technology and knowledge base now exists to determine whether or not both the HIV and cancer ideas are feasible,” said Johnston.
“I congratulate each individual who took the initiative to share their idea with us to help fight the world’s most serious diseases,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. “The number of creative approaches we received exceeded our highest aspirations. Projects from this initial pool of grants have the potential to transform health in developing countries, and I will be rooting for their success.”
About Grand Challenges Explorations
Grand Challenges Explorations is a five-year $100 million initiative of the Gates Foundation to promote innovation in global health. The program uses an agile, streamlined grant process – applications are limited to two pages, and preliminary data are not required. Proposals are reviewed and selected by a committee of foundation staff and external experts, and grant decisions are made within approximately three months of the close of the funding round.
Applications for the second round of Grand Challenges Explorations are being accepted through November 2, 2008, and topics for the third round will be announced in early 2009. Grant application instructions, including the list of topic areas in which proposals are currently being accepted, are available at www.gcgh.org/explorations.
About the Biodesign Institute at ASU
The Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University pursues research to create personalized medical diagnostics and treatments, outpace infectious disease, clean the environment, develop alternative energy sources, and secure a safer world. Using a team approach that fuses the biosciences with nanoscale engineering and advanced computing, the Biodesign Institute collaborates with academic, industrial and governmental organizations globally to accelerate these discoveries to market. The institute also educates future scientists by providing hands-on laboratory research for more than 200 students per semester. For more information, go to: www.biodesign.asu.edu
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Source:
Dr. Stephen Albert Johnston
Director, Center for Innovations in Medicine
Biodesign Institute
Arizona State University
(480)-727-0792 (office)
stephen.johnston@asu.edu
