NAU and TGen awarded $8.5 million dollar grant
Summary:
Northern Arizona University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute have landed $8.5 million in federal grants and corporate support. The $3.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the $4.6 million in support from Applied Biosystems Group of Foster City, Calif. will fund research into the causes and treatment of sepsis and community-acquired pneumonia.
Full Story:
Northern Arizona University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute have landed $8.5 million in federal grants and corporate support.
The $3.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the $4.6 million in support from Applied Biosystems Group of Foster City, Calif. will fund research into the causes and treatment of sepsis and community-acquired pneumonia. Sepsis is a life-threatening illness caused by overwhelming infection of the bloodstream by toxin-producing bacteria.
The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list sepsis and CAP among the top ten leading causes of death for most age groups worldwide. Every minute of every day, one person in America is dying from sepsis. This number is projected to rise at a rate of 1.5 percent per year. Reducing sepsis mortality rates by 25 percent would save 50,000 people nationally and more than 1 million people worldwide each year, according to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization that seeks to improve healthcare.
The goal of the project is to research more rapid and accurate tools for treating patients afflicted by sepsis and CAP. Currently, it can take more than a day to identify the pathogens responsible for sepsis and community-acquired pneumonia and prescribe the correct antibiotics.
"A major challenge facing health care providers in the successful treatment of medical conditions such as sepsis and CAP is the inability to rapidly and consistently diagnosis these conditions," said Dr. Paul Keim, director of pathogen genomics at TGen and director of the Microbial Genetics and Genomics ABOR Center at Northern Arizona University.
The Pathogen Genomics Division, led by Keim, is a joint program between TGen and Arizona's major universities.
Keim's team will try to identify the genetic signatures of the germs that cause the diseases. Those signatures would be used by Applied Biosystems to develop a test that would quickly identify the infections and enable physicians to prescribe the correct drugs to fight the diseases. The research will be verified and validated through the Laboratory Services of Arizona and the Banner Health System.
For its support, Applied Biosystems will gain the right to participate in the commercialization of any discoveries.
For more information:
"TGen, NAU get $8.5 million," Arizona Republic, 08/05/2005
"NAU lands $9M TGen project," Arizona Daily Sun, 08/04/2005
TGen press release, 08/04/2005