For over a century, El Paso has lengthy been a sanctuary for people affected by tuberculosis. It will quickly be dwelling to groundbreaking analysis that stops the debilitating illness. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso infectious illness researcher Subramanian Dhandayuthapani, Ph.D., has been awarded a $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to analyze tuberculosis. The announcement was made forward of World Tuberculosis Day, which is acknowledged yearly on March 24.
Known as Dr. Pani on campus, the researcher’s five-year grant will discover creating new vaccines to stop tuberculosis, which impacts over 10 million individuals worldwide every year.
We’re extremely happy with Dr. Pani’s exceptional achievement in being awarded the NIH R01 grant for his analysis on tuberculosis. This transformational grant will assist Dr. Pani and his group’s revolutionary work to enhance our understanding of this infectious illness and develop new, preventive vaccines for tuberculosis. The influence of this analysis will handle well being disparities within the underserved communities alongside the U.S.-Mexico border. We sit up for the progress his analysis will deliver to our Borderplex group and past.”
Richard Lange, M.D., M.B.A., TTUHSC El Paso President
The oldest and most generally sought-after supply of funding on the NIH, R01 grant purposes are extremely aggressive. The success price is as little as 10%, which means that solely a fraction of candidates are profitable in acquiring funding. As a testomony to their significance, R01 grants usually set up a framework for finest practices or requirements of care throughout the well being care occupation.
Tuberculosis, a extremely contagious illness brought on by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, primarily impacts the lungs. It’s a serious public well being concern, with the World Health Organization rating it because the thirteenth main explanation for loss of life worldwide and the main trigger from a single infectious agent, with 10.6 million males, girls and youngsters troubled by the illness. The emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis strains has made the remedy much more difficult, emphasizing the necessity for brand spanking new medication and therapies.
Tuberculosis is a severe public well being problem in El Paso County and in underserved communities alongside the U.S.-Mexico border. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the incidence price of tuberculosis in El Paso County in 2020 was 2.7 circumstances per 100,000 individuals, which is greater than the state common of 1.9 circumstances per 100,000 individuals and the nationwide common of two.3 circumstances per 100,000 individuals. The incidence price of tuberculosis in Texas border counties was 2.8 circumstances per 100,000 individuals in 2020.
Working in collaboration with Shrikanth Gadad, Ph.D., M.Sc., and Jessica Chacon, Ph.D., from TTUHSC El Paso and Chinnaswamy Jagannath, Ph.D., from Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, Dr. Pani’s work will leverage the most recent advances in genomics, immunology and bioinformatics. Their focus is on the event of improved new-generation BCG (bacille Calmette-Guerin) vaccines. These serums include a weakened pressure of the micro organism Mycobacterium bovis, which is said to the micro organism that trigger human tuberculosis. When administered, the vaccine stimulates the immune system to acknowledge and battle off related micro organism sooner or later, thus offering safety towards tuberculosis an infection.
This is the second grant Dr. Pani has acquired from the NIH for analysis on this space. His first, a $492,258 grant from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was awarded in 2021.
“Our analysis on tuberculosis vaccine improvement will not be solely about discovering new therapies but in addition bettering well being outcomes for sufferers around the globe,” stated Dr. Pani. “By figuring out new targets and creating new therapies, we might help alleviate the burden of this illness. I’m honored to obtain this NIH R01 grant, and excited concerning the potential influence our analysis may have on stopping this illness.”
Dr. Pani can be a professor with TTUHSC El Paso’s Center of Emphasis for Infectious Diseases throughout the Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine. The Center supplies essential assets and experience to assist Dr. Pani’s work, together with entry to affected person populations and superior analysis applied sciences. In flip, his analysis additionally contributes to the middle’s broader mission of addressing well being disparities and bettering well being outcomes for Hispanics within the area.
Collaboration among the many Centers of Emphasis and with different establishments, group organizations and stakeholders is important in addressing the complicated well being points confronted by Hispanics within the area. By working collectively, researchers develop revolutionary approaches to well being care that make a big influence on the well being of the group. Through shared dedication to bettering well being fairness and outcomes, TTUHSC El Paso’s Centers of Emphasis exhibit the ability of collaboration in reaching significant progress in addressing well being disparities and bettering the lives of these we serve.
The new vaccine has the potential to guard towards different viral infections – it is designed to work in a nonspecific method, which suggests it helps the immune system battle off any viruses it encounters. This is an thrilling improvement as a result of it means the vaccine may have a broader influence on public well being past simply tuberculosis prevention.
Moreover, the vaccine has proven potential in treating bladder most cancers. Researchers have found the vaccine can stimulate the immune system to acknowledge and assault most cancers cells within the bladder. This is critical as a result of bladder most cancers is the sixth most typical most cancers within the U.S., and present therapies can have debilitating unwanted effects. If the vaccine is profitable in scientific trials, it may present a simpler and fewer invasive remedy possibility for bladder most cancers sufferers.
The Borderplex area, which spans throughout West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Mexico, is dwelling to numerous people who’re susceptible to creating tuberculosis on account of excessive charges of poverty, migration and different elements. The funding of Dr. Pani’s analysis is not going to solely profit this group, but in addition contribute to the worldwide effort to fight tuberculosis and enhance the well being of populations worldwide.
Students attending TTUHSC El Paso could have the distinctive alternative to realize hands-on expertise by engaged on the undertaking alongside Dr. Pani and his group. While the grant is totally devoted to analysis, college students from the Foster School of Medicine and the Francis Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences will nonetheless have the possibility to take part. The alternative to work on such an impactful undertaking is invaluable for college students seeking to additional their training and careers within the medical subject.
About Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso
TTUHSC El Paso is the one well being sciences heart on the U.S.-Mexico border and serves 108 counties in West Texas which were traditionally underserved. It’s a delegated Title V Hispanic-Serving Institution, making ready the subsequent technology of well being care heroes, 48% of whom determine as Hispanic and are sometimes first-generation college students.
TTUHSC El Paso was established to concentrate on the distinctive well being care and academic wants of our Borderplex group. In 2023, TTUHSC El Paso celebrates its tenth anniversary as an impartial college throughout the Texas Tech University System. In a decade, the college has graduated over 2,000 docs, nurses and researchers, and can quickly add dentists to its alumni.
Disclaimer: Research reported on this media launch was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health beneath Award Number R01AI175837. The content material is solely the accountability of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and doesn’t essentially characterize the official views of the National Institutes of Health.