Breakthrough Innovation of the Year
NUtech Ventures
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11/01/2019
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The Breakthrough Innovation of the Year award went to Gary Pickard, professor of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences, and Patricia Sollars, associate professor of veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences. The team has developed a herpes vaccine that has been successfully tested on mice. The research has further implications for animal protection and cancer treatments in humans.
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- [00:00:00.532](mellow electronic music)
- [00:00:02.370]So what we've been studying for several years
- [00:00:04.690]is neuro-invasive herpes viruses and how they invade
- [00:00:08.725]the nervous system and then travel long distances
- [00:00:11.690]along neuro fibers, to establish a life-long
- [00:00:14.080]latent infection in your nervous system.
- [00:00:17.130]If you've ever had a coldsore, herpes is virus
- [00:00:19.550]is in you for life.
- [00:00:20.970]About 60-70% of the world population has herpes virus
- [00:00:24.732]in their nervous system.
- [00:00:27.210]So in collaboration with colleagues
- [00:00:29.770]at Tufts University Medical School, Ekaterina Heldwein,
- [00:00:33.900]and Greg Smith at Northwestern University
- [00:00:36.560]Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago,
- [00:00:39.280]we've discovered how to inhibit viruses from moving
- [00:00:42.980]along those neuro fibers to establish that infection.
- [00:00:46.160]And since they don't establish an infection,
- [00:00:48.480]but they still are viable viruses,
- [00:00:50.760]we can use those viruses as vaccines
- [00:00:53.220]to protect against herpes infection.
- [00:00:56.836]So when we were trying to investigate this virus
- [00:01:00.450]in its potential role as a vaccine,
- [00:01:02.210]we tried bunches of roots of application.
- [00:01:04.800]We tried to put it nasally and put it in the eye.
- [00:01:07.780]We could ocular, we could subcutaneous,
- [00:01:09.540]so go under the skin.
- [00:01:10.600]We tried intermuscular, and under all of those conditions,
- [00:01:14.090]not only did it not harm the animal in any way,
- [00:01:15.970]but it was also protective against the more toxic,
- [00:01:18.890]more virulent virus.
- [00:01:20.280]But because what we were looking at
- [00:01:22.080]was the neuronal capacity,
- [00:01:24.510]the neuro-invasive properties of it,
- [00:01:27.000]we needed to make absolutely sure how it was gonna function,
- [00:01:30.660]if it ever actually did get into the nervous system.
- [00:01:33.480]So even though we knew it wasn't gonna get in
- [00:01:35.660]from the periphery, we had to actually conduct surgeries
- [00:01:37.750]to get it actually into the nervous system,
- [00:01:39.580]to see how it would function once it was inside.
- [00:01:42.960]So currently there is no herpes vaccine available.
- [00:01:46.810]And we think this has great potential to developing
- [00:01:50.460]into a human vaccine.
- [00:01:53.700]There are herpes viruses for animals,
- [00:01:56.140]each species has its own virus,
- [00:01:59.100]and so there are animal health applications
- [00:02:02.420]for herpes vaccines.
- [00:02:03.800]And also we can use it in oncolytic vectors
- [00:02:06.900]for cancer treatment, to prevent the vectors
- [00:02:09.210]from entering the nervous system.
- [00:02:11.420]So one of the things that I think is best
- [00:02:13.160]about the work that we've done, is it's sort of like
- [00:02:15.280]a case study for what is best about interdisciplinary work,
- [00:02:20.850]that the university really fosters and supports.
- [00:02:23.469]So we have two groups of researchers actually,
- [00:02:26.840]who are interested in working on viruses,
- [00:02:28.810]how they function, and what their structures are.
- [00:02:30.890]And we have our group over here that is really concentrated
- [00:02:33.310]on neuro anatomy.
- [00:02:34.143]And we were looking for sort of tools to find the ability
- [00:02:36.992]to trace neuro connections.
- [00:02:39.360]And you get those two groups together
- [00:02:41.310]to be looking at their particular areas of focus,
- [00:02:44.362]and out of the marriage of those two,
- [00:02:46.630]you get something completely new and extraordinary.
- [00:02:49.470]You get these vaccines for a virus.
- [00:02:51.910]And so it has immediate ramifications for health
- [00:02:55.350]for humans, health for animals.
- [00:02:57.250]And it's not at all what we were looking to do.
- [00:02:59.170]Neither group was looking to do this.
- [00:03:00.610]But with a combination, you got that result.
- [00:03:03.462](mellow electronic music)
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