U.S. soldiers in foreign countries could have help combating diseases with an antibiotic drug being developed by ASU researchers.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense that develops innovative military technology, called out to scientists requesting development of the antibiotic. ASU’s Biodesign Institute answered.
Stephen Johnston, the Institute’s director, along with his team of scientists and a $5.3 million grant from DARPA, have now set out to reduce the response time that it takes to design an antibiotic that can combat a given engineered biothreat agent.
One disease, among others, is the muscle-infecting superbug bacterium, MRSA, that is infecting many U.S. soldiers and has become resistant to mostly all available antibiotics that are starting to lose their potency in the field.
“We are screening viruses, bacterium, bacteriophage and fungi so that we are prepared to create a therapeutic for any pathogen that may compromise the health of our soldiers,” said Kaitlin Kroening, a medicinal biochemistry senior who works with the tissue culture for the antibiotic development.
According to Johnston, DARPA’s chief goal with the allocation of its grant money is to set up a testing period in order to recognize if the Biodesign Institute can create an antibiotic in a timely manner in order to ultimately be able to fight the engineered biothreat agents that U.S. military troops are encountering.
As regulated by DARPA, the team at ASU will have had a year to cut down the antibiotic creation time to 14 days or less in its first testing period in July 2011.
The team is currently in its early preparation stages, Johnston said. So far in the research and development the team has found peptides that bind all types of bacteria.
“The challenge of how to chemically make these [synthetic antibodies] fast and make sure they work in an animal without harming it are next,” Johnston said.
The team is hoping it is able to cut down the response time to just 14 days, and Johnston said researchers are able to do so by having multiple solutions to each problem and by pursuing each in parallel.
“If we succeed in developing the therapeutic, then our funding will be extended and we will have one more year to cut the response time down to seven days,” Kroening said.
The seven-day testing period will take place the following year in July 2012.
If Johnston and his team pass the test, the military will stockpile the antibiotic for emergency situations and ASU will become a regular receiver of grant money to keep the medicine updated for new and additional development.
“If we can do it in seven days we can also foster something for standard clinical use around the world,” Johnston said. “We will have everyone here up day and night to see if we can get it done.”
If the team passes DARPA’s test it will mean wide scientific appraisal for the program as well.
“We have a new strategy to reduce our discovery phase from what is typically 5 to 10 years down to a couple of weeks, and this would be a major breakthrough that would advance research in society,” said Joseph Caspermeyer, the associate director for ASU’s Biodesign communications.
The project’s success will also mean big things for ASU in its recognition in the biomedical research world.
“The completion of this project will mean international impact for ASU and the Biodesign Institute,” Kroening said. “ASU will be on the cutting edge of biomedical research and innovative therapeutics.”
Reach the reporter at shmoore3@asu.edu
