May 11, 2011 – (BRONX, NY) – Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D., and Ekaterina Dadachova, Ph.D., of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have been named winners of Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Their project, "Radioimmunotherapy in patients on anti-retroviral therapy for HIV cure," involves using radioimmunotherapy (in which radioactive isotopes are attached to antibodies) to treat HIV/AIDS. Here the antibody will target a specific protein on the surface of cells infected with HIV so that radiation emitted by its attached isotope will destroy the cells.
Grand Challenges Explorations is a $100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Launched in 2008, Grand Challenge Explorations grants have already been awarded to nearly 500 researchers from over 40 countries. Drs. Casadevall and Dadachova's project is one of more than 85 Grand Challenges Explorations Round 6 grants announced April 28 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Casadevall is the Leo and Julia Forchheimer Chair in Microbiology and Immunology and professor and chair of the department. Dr. Dadachova is the Sylvia and Robert S. Olnick Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research and associate professor of nuclear medicine and of microbiology & immunology.
"GCE winners are expanding the pipeline of ideas for serious global health and development challenges where creative thinking is most urgently needed. These grants are meant to spur on new discoveries that could ultimately save millions of lives," said Chris Wilson, director of Global Health Discovery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Drs. Casadevall and Dadachova's winning project is based on their November 2006 paper in PLoS Medicine that showed radioimmunotherapy could successfully target and destroy human immune cells infected with HIV. The impact of this discovery could be significant – the World Health Organization estimates that there are over 33 million adults and children living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. The team uses a radionuclide supplied by their collaborators at the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Karlsruhe, Germany.
This project is just one of the many successful investigations the two Einstein scientists have undertaken during their 10-year collaboration. Other promising efforts include using radioimmonotherapy to treat incurable metastatic melanoma (their technology was licensed by Pain Therapeutics, Inc. and is now in clinical trials) and coating nanoparticles with melanin pigment to protect bone marrow from the damaging effects of radiation.
About Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2009-2010 academic year, Einstein is home to 722 M.D. students, 243 Ph.D. students, 128 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and approximately 350 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has 2,775 fulltime faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2009, Einstein received more than $155 million in support from the NIH. This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in diabetes, cancer, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Through its extensive affiliation network involving five medical centers in the Bronx, Manhattan and Long Island - which includes Montefiore Medical Center, The University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for Einstein - the College of Medicine runs one of the largest post-graduate medical training programs in the United States, offering approximately 150 residency programs to more than 2,500 physicians in training. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu