"This award recognizes the important role that veterinarians play in addressing public health threats," said Lawrence S. Bacow, Tufts University president. "Nearly 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths every year in the U.S. are due to food-borne pathogens alone--so our ability to quickly diagnose and treat food- and water-borne pathogens are of paramount importance. This research will play a critical role in protecting our country from bioterrorist threats."
Tufts will establish a Microbiology Research Unit in the new nationwide Food and Waterborne Disease Integrated Research Network. A major focus of this unit will be a Center of Botulinum Therapies Research and Development, the first of its kind in the United States. Tufts University will work with the University of Massachusetts researchers on this portion of the contract, which will focus on developing ways to diagnose and treat botulism poisoning, one of the most dangerous bioterrorism threats facing the United States and the world today.
The other four units funded in FY'03 are at academic research centers in Michigan, Maryland, New York and Washington State. The research focus of the four units include microbiology, zoonoses and immunology. All of the units will evaluate vaccines, therapeutics, rapid diagnostic methods, body defenses, and microbiology and ecology of diseases transmitted between humans and animals.
The Tufts-led team of researchers will identify and characterize the human pathogens that can cause disease in food or water suspected of either accidental or deliberate contamination. They also will rank the pathogens according to their significance--including how often they occur every year in the U.S., whether they are contagious and can cause clinically serious human infections, and if bioterrorists can readily produce them in large numbers and deliberately disseminate them through food and water.
"The discoveries that will be made as a result of this award are going to have a profound impact on how our nation and others respond to the very real threat of bioterrorism,'' said Dr. Jack M. Wilson, interim president of the five-campus UMass system. "This award is recognition that some of the best and most important science in the world is being conducted here in Massachusetts and is an example of the innovative links that the University of Massachusetts is building between its campuses and its private sector peers.''
The botulism research center will draw on the expertise of Saul Tzipori, PhD, DVM, Tufts' internationally renowned infectious diseases expert and who led efforts to earn the NIH award, and Bal Ram Singh, PhD, a professor of biophysical chemistry at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Tzipori said the NIH contract also will help consolidate Tufts' plan to establish a food and waterborne pathogen research center that includes a regional water testing facility. "This center will place us at the forefront of the national biodefense effort to safeguard our food and water sources," Tzipori said. "We are especially pleased to be working with our UMass colleagues to advance knowledge in this area."
Singh added: "In the case of a bioterror event, even a couple of thousand cases of botulism would completely overwhelm the U.S. public health system. There is an urgency to our mission. This award will accelerate our efforts to combat one of the most dangerous threats to human beings around the world. I am particularly pleased to be working in collaboration with the outstanding team from Tufts, which has developed an excellent reputation for its work in containing and treating infectious diseases."
UMass Dartmouth - which has one of two major labs in the U.S. involved with comprehensive research on botulinum neurotoxin production - will triple its existing 3,500-square-foot laboratory to accommodate the new center's mission to develop botulism treatments and design diagnostic strategies.
[Editor's Note: This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-AI-30050. The contract will be financed 100 percent with federal funds, the exact dollar amount of the contract is $24,947,393.]
Background
Founded in 1978 in North Grafton, Mass., Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine is New England's only veterinary school. Renowned for innovation and expertise in numerous areas of animal health, clinicians in the school's three hospitals rank among the finest in the world, treating some 25,000 patients per year. Tufts' Foster Hospital for Small Animals has the nation's largest residency-training program in veterinary emergency and critical care. In addition, Tufts' Wildlife Clinic has been designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the official New England treatment center for rare and endangered species.
Now celebrating its 25thyear, the school is also esteemed for its academic centers and signature programs that impact society and the practice of veterinary medicine. Fully accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association, Tufts annually enrolls over 300 students (80 students per academic class) in its four-year program that leads to a doctor of veterinary medicine (D.V.M.) degree. The school is a pioneer in veterinary ethics and values and offers the world's only graduate degree (M.S.) in the field of human/animal relationships and related public policies. Tufts University is the only institution of higher education to offer a four-year, combined doctor of veterinary medicine (D.V.M.) and master of public health (M.P.H.) degree.
The 60,000-student University of Massachusetts, founded in 1863, now has comprehensive campuses in Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, and Lowell; and Medical School in Worcester; and one of the nation's leading distance learning enterprises, UMassOnline. The five-campus UMass system conducts over $300 million of research annually, third among Massachusetts universities.