News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Albany Medical College in Albany, N.Y., has received an $8.3 million federal grant to study pulmonary tularemia, with the main emphasis on developing a vaccine, college officials announced last week.

The grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will fund tularemia research at the college for 4½ years, the college said in a news release.

(CIDRAP News) – The British biotechnology company Acambis announced yesterday that it has launched the first clinical trial of its vaccine for West Nile virus, called ChimeriVax-West Nile.

The phase 1 trial will involve 60 adult volunteers in Lenexa, Kan., the company said in a news release. The volunteers will receive one of three doses of the West Nile vaccine or a licensed yellow fever vaccine that is being used as a control.

(CIDRAP News) – A team of researchers in St. Louis has retooled a mousepox virus so it can defeat a vaccine that normally protects mice—but has also found ways to beat the customized virus, according to the group's leader.

(CIDRAP News) – The federal government awarded two contracts totaling more than $150 million this week for further testing and initial production of new anthrax vaccines designed to be safer and require fewer doses than the existing vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials yesterday announced grants to build 11 new biodefense laboratories around the country, including two that will be authorized to study the most dangerous pathogens.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials yesterday released a 37-page report that they say demonstrates "tremendous progress" in developing countermeasures for bioterrorism through federally funded research since early 2002.

(CIDRAP News) – In response to criticism from smallpox expert Dr. D. A. Henderson, the senior author of a recent study on smallpox immunity has defended his group's conclusion that a single smallpox shot may provide at least some protection for decades or even for life.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services yesterday announced $350 million in grants for eight regional centers to lead and coordinate research on defenses against bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases.

(CIDRAP News) – As the number of West Nile virus cases continues to climb, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced that its scientists have created a promising new vaccine against the virus. The vaccine involves a distantly related virus, dengue type 4, in which some proteins have been replaced by corresponding proteins from the West Nile virus.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have determined that a single injection of a fast-acting experimental Ebola vaccine confers protection against the disease in monkeys after just 1 month.