CBID Focuses on Infectious Disease, Bioweapons

Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin Center for Biopreparedness and Infectious Disease (CBID) are studying toxic agents that can be used as weapons, and the diseases they cause. CBID is part of a national initiative funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to expand research in response to the threat of terror attacks using biological agents.

By learning more about how toxins, viruses and bacteria work, researchers hope to not only contribute to national biodefense, but also to apply their findings toward protecting the population against emerging infectious diseases such as monkey pox, hepatitis C and West Nile virus. The pathogens that cause these diseases threaten human health even without being used as weapons of terror.

"CBID was formed as a grassroots initiative that grew out of the 2001 anthrax attacks," said Dara W. Frank, PhD, Medical College Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and CBID Director. "It became very clear to us that there was going to be an investment in the development of new therapeutics, vaccines and drugs, and these developments are part of our goals as scientists involved in infectious disease research."

"The Medical College has a strong core of researchers to build a new and expanded program that will, in the short term, meet national needs by studying select agents, but in the long term will be focused on chronic and emerging pathogens."

CBID is taking advantage of existing expertise at the Medical College and at several other institutions to which it is subcontracting work, all part of the NIH Region V Great Lakes Regional Center of Excellence. The hub of "hands-on" research for the region is at CBID, in a new Level 3 containment laboratory that allows scientists to work with toxic agents and infectious disease material in a secure, safe and sealed environment.

Most biological research is conducted in labs rated "Level 1" or "Level 2," depending on what type of agents are being studied and how well the facility can protect workers, the environment and the public from contamination. The most toxic and dangerous agents are studied in Level 3 or 4 facilities.

Toxins, Viruses and Bacteria
"In the microbiology department we have people whose expertise covers bacterial toxins, viral and bacterial pathogens and the immune response," said Dr. Frank. "We have people that are very well trained to ask molecular questions about organisms that cause disease. This will be a great way to add to our national resources. The Medical College is a major research institution in Wisconsin and should be part of the national resources for investigating infectious diseases.

"The support money allows us to have special facilities so we can do research at a higher containment level. We applied for research funding that covers poxviruses and botulinum toxins, and we have a project on tularemia, which is one of the 'select' agents, a very rare bacterial disease. Diseases on the 'select agent' list - including plague, anthrax, ricin, monkey pox, and many of the hemorrhagic fevers - have been weaponized in the past or pose a threat because they are highly contagious."

A tour of CBID's Level 3 lab, conducted before any biological agents had been brought in, revealed a number of security and safety features. High-level security limits access only to those authorized. Airflow in the environment is completely sealed off from the outside world, and there are special design features to fully contain spills. Backup systems ensure electrical power for the lab in the event of an outage. Work with agents is done within self-contained hoods. Researchers must change into disposable scrubs and wear protective gear including two sets of gloves and respirator masks with special fittings.

To minimize potential for breaks and leakage, there are no glass containers, razor blades or other "sharps" in the Level 3 lab. An autoclave in the lab anteroom is used to kill all organisms before they are removed for disposal. The high-tech autoclave is essentially a steamer that decontaminates material by heating it until all living cells it contains are dead.

The CBID Level 3 lab is one of very few in Wisconsin, Dr. Frank noted, adding that anyone authorized to work in it will have undergone extensive training and FBI background checks.

Biodefense and Human Health
"The biodefense work and improving human health in general is very interconnected," said Dr. Frank. "As an example, Sixty Minutes just did a report on methicillin-resistant staphylococcus. People aren't just acquiring this illness because they happen to be really ill and in the hospital. Now they're also getting it in the community. It's becoming a problem because there's only one drug that you can use to treat this organism.

"This is a serious, serious bacterial infection; it can cause severe pneumonias and skin infections even in healthy people, and it's becoming an untreatable organism. And so is anthrax, as well. They're similar in that both organisms make toxins. We study bacterial toxins in our group; and I can see where we might come up with new treatments for other diseases quite easily; because the things we discover about toxins might translate from one organism to another.

"I work on an organism that makes a toxin very similar to edema factor in anthrax - they have the same enzymatic activity. If I come up with a neutralizer for my toxin, will it work for anthrax as well? Maybe. There are many ways in which just understanding the basic biology of organisms is going to help us translate that into treatment of everyday types of infections."

"There are few people actually trying to do this kind of research, and who have the appropriate training," said Dr. Frank. "And so, if there was ever something that happened (such as a biological terror attack or infectious disease outbreak) there would be more trained individuals who could possibly lend their expertise towards analyzing samples. So part of what we're trying to do here with this center is to take advantage of the NIH guided initiatives to develop new research programs to develop vaccines and therapeutics in case an event occurs.

"The research facility is now officially sanctioned by the Medical College. I want to be open to members of any department or center to join our efforts and collaborate on projects whose focus involves infectious disease, the immune response, or host genetic factors encoding disease resistance or susceptibility. CBID is geared to facilitate the generation of new ideas and wants to foster more integrated ways of investigating pathogenesis."

Dan Ullrich
HealthLink Contributing Writer

MCW Health News presents up-to-date information on patient care and medical research by the physicians of the Medical College of Wisconsin.