Georgiou and Team Receive $6.5 million for Vaccine Research
Professor George Georgiou is leading a team of researchers that recently received a $6.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to accelerate the evaluation and development of new vaccines for emerging health threats.
Georgiou’s collaborators include the College of Natural Sciences’ Edward Marcotte, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Andy Ellington, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Gregory Ippolito, research assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology.
Vaccine development and testing currently requires large longitudinal clinical studies. The process is expensive, time consuming and requires lengthy trials. The research pioneered by the UT Austin team could lead to future fast-track vaccine solutions when unexpected threats are present.
“The grant is significant because it will help us develop a new paradigm for vaccine evaluation, one that could accelerate the development of new, effective vaccines for emerging diseases,” said Georgiou, principal investigator on the four-year grant.
Georgiou is a professor in the College of Natural Sciences as well as the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Chemical Engineering Department. He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1987 and most recently was named as one of “100 Eminent Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineering.
The researchers’ goal is to develop a system that accelerates the development and testing process, matching the often-rapid pace at which diseases emerge and new vaccines need to be developed, tested and distributed.
The team will capitalize on a pioneering immunoprofiling technology recently developed at the university that allows them to directly identify antibodies in the blood that are induced following vaccination and shows how these antibodies in turn act to protect against pathogens.
They hope to better understand how vaccines provide protection, what determines the duration that individuals are protected, and how people respond uniquely and individually to vaccines. The researchers will also gain an unprecedented depth of information on the nature of antibody-based immune responses in humans.
Tags: Andy Ellington, award, Cockrell School of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engerineering, Edward Marcotte, George Georgiou, grant, Gregory Ippolito, health threats, research, The University of Texas as Austin, UT, vaccines