Gates Foundation Grant for Polio Vaccine Research
Mami Taniuchi, PhD
Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health
RESEARCH NEWS: Polio Vaccine Project Receives $1.5 Million Gates Foundation Grant
Mami Taniuchi, PhD, a senior scientist in the lab run by Eric Houpt, MD, managed to put together, with the help of Division Chief William Petri Jr., MD, PhD, a $1.5 million grant application to the Gates Foundation for research on polio eradication — in one week! They received notification that same week that Gates had funded the application.
Under the mentorship of Dr. Houpt, Dr. Taniuchi has developed a method for tracking immunity and virus shedding after oral polio vaccination (the common method for polio vaccination in low-income countries), utilizing a real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) test to check for Sabin vaccine virus in stool. The research, published in the Nov. 5, 2014, issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, got the immediate attention of the Gates Foundation and, according to Dr. Petri, “had them beating a path to her door.” For an in-depth look at this research, click here.
Houpt Wins Additional Support from Gates Foundation
Eric Houpt, MD, with UVA Infectious Diseases faculty member Tania Thomas, MD, and research nurse Emanuel Sillo in Haydom, Tanzania.
Eric Houpt, MD, received a $2.7 million supplement to his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant, “Next Generation Molecular Diagnostic Technologies.” His research group will be testing 12,000 specimens from the Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS) for 35 different enteropathogens in order to revise estimates on the etiology of diarrhea.