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Group
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Staff:..Dr.
Uday Pathania, Ms. Fiona Tulloch |
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Wellcome
Trust Infection & Immunity Panel
"New
disease control strategies for foot-and-mouth disease”.
1/3/2010-
28/2/2013. £188,123
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Background:
Foot-and-Mouth Disease. The
2001 and 2007 UK outbreaks of FMDV illustrated the economic damage and
social disruption that this animal disease can inflict upon a developed
society. FMDV is an ever-present threat to world agriculture and causes
proportionally much higher damage to the agriculture of developing nations.
Since FMDV exists in wild-animal reservoirs around the globe, re-introduction
of the disease into domesticated livestock poses an on-going problem.
Although vaccines are available, these are produced by the large-scale
growth of highly virulent virus follwed by chemical inactivation. Escape
of virus from such production facilities similarly poses an on-going
hazzard to agriculture.
New
Disease Control Strategies. Albert Sabin
developed live, attenuated, vaccine strains for a related virus, polio.
This was accomplished in the early 1950s before the availability of
complete genome sequences or the development of modern molecular biological
methods to manipulate such genomes. His work, alongside that of Jonas
Salk, transformed public health in this area. Our vision is to extend
our knowledge as to how this virus replicates within cells and use
this knowledge to 'rationally design' and construct new, attenuated,
strains of FMDV that can be used for vaccines.
FMDV
Research.
By law, only licensed, high disease secure,
facilities can work with the infectious agent - the virus. There is,
however, a form of the genome - the 'replicon' - which has a large
deletion in the genome encoding the capsid proteins. This modified
form of the genome is able to replicate within a cell, but is completely
unable to 'package' itself into a particle: the genome cannot
be transmitted from one cell into the next cell, let alone into an
animal. It cannot cause a disease. The HSE and DEFRA have
granted permission for studies using this bio-secure form of the genome
outwith such disease security facilities. The Wellcome Trust have
supported research specifically designed towards the creation of new,
attenuated, vaccine strains of FMDV.
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