Achievement

IGERT students and faculty have been collaborating with veterinary researchers to begin the first trials of vaccine testing for Burkholderia pseudomallei. This pathogen causes the disease melioidosis and is endemic to Southeast Asia and Northern Australia and is a national and international bio-security concern. Following engineering of the attenuated vaccine, students and faculty carried out several research trials that characterized the behavior of the strain, which were necessary to justify the safety and efficacy of live-attenuated vaccine strains. IGERT Fellow Michael Norris and faculty Dr. Tung Hoang worked with Dr. Steven Dow and Dr. Herbert Schweizer from Colorado State University, in the first round of trials, in which initial animal testing confirmed that the engineered strain is attenuated and cannot cause disease. The team then showed that it was effective at preventing acute inhalation melioidosis in an animal model.