News and Events >UCD/UCHSC's Dr. Michael Vasil Named Project Director in New Regional Center for Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases

UCD/UCHSC's Dr. Michael Vasil Named Project Director in New Regional Center for Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases

June 10, 2005

Dr. Michael Vasil has been named Project Director for HSC's role in a $40 million grant establishing a Regional Center of Excellence (RCE) for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at Colorado State University. The RCE draws on expertise of scientists throughout the Rocky Mountain region for studying organisms that can be exploited for bio-warfare uses. The mission and scope of the recently awarded $40 million grant are detailed at CSU's webpage article.

According to Dr. Vasil, HSC's Department of Microbiology will receive about $400,000 annually over the four-year grant period, for the study of two organisms historically associated with bio-warfare. Burkholderia mallei was used as a biological weapon against both livestock and humans by Japan in the first and second world wars, and by Germany in World War I. A related organism, Burkoholderia pseudomallei, is an environmental organism that can also cause severe disease in humans. It is largely found in the soils in Southeast Asia, while Burkholderia mallei is invariably associated with mammals (e.g. horses, cattle, and humans). There's evidence that the former Soviet Union studied these organisms' bio-warfare potential during the Cold War. Dr. Vasil cites a long history of human warfare uses of bacterial agents and their toxins as documented in Erhard Geissler's book, Biological and Toxin Weapons: Research, Development and Use from the Middle Ages to 1945 (Sipri Chemical & Biological Warfare Studies, No. 18.).

Michael Vasil and his colleagues on the project-Randy Holmes, Andres Vasquez-Torres, and Martin Voskuil-- will combine their experience working with zoonotic and environmental agents similar to the Burkholderia species in expectation of identifying products useful for preventing, diagnosing, and treating their toxic effects. Each of their four microbiology labs will hire an additional 3-4 technical and post-doc employees for the projects, which will be conducted in the newly constructed special containment labs at the Fitzsimons Campus of the Health Sciences Center.

Burkholderia diseases affect the populations of Africa and Southeast Asia. Dr. Vasil's team applied for this Biodefense funding because, while Burkholderia are recognized as serious disease causing agents, the mechanisms by which they cause disease are poorly understood. Research conducted by HSC's Microbiology Department over the next four years promises to make Americans safer while mitigating the health costs borne by people in Africa and Asia-dual outcomes that together stand to enhance U.S. anti-terrorism efforts.

Related News Links:
Colorado State University Awarded $40 Million NIH Grant for Regional Center of Excellence in Infectious Disease Research