Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies Wins $4.8 Million Contract from National Institutes of Health.

SAN DIEGO -- Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies today announced that it has received a five-year, $4.8 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to work towards the discovery of new vaccines for smallpox. This contract is part of NIAID's initiative, the Large-Scale Antibody and T Cell Epitope Discovery Program, to find vaccines, therapies and diagnostic tools against infectious diseases and bioterror agents.

The contract at the Institute will be directed by Clemencia Pinilla, Ph.D. "Using the unique combinatorial approach that we pioneered, developed and successfully tested over the past fifteen years, we will be able to test literally trillions of peptides to elucidate the specificity of cells responsible for the immune response against the virus used for vaccination against smallpox," says Dr. Pinilla.

Under the NIAID initiative, the results of the research will be made freely available to scientists through a database system currently under development. Dr. Pinilla states "We are pleased to be working together with other scientists working under this initiative to study the immune response to poxviruses or other pathogens using various novel epitope identification approaches. The NIAID initiative is providing funding to carry out studies that would not be easily funded by other mechanisms and is expected to result in a comprehensive survey of the important epitopes for a number pathogens while also allowing the evaluation, optimization and development of various epitope discovery approaches."

Smallpox is a highly virulent and infectious disease in humans caused by variola virus. Vaccinia virus, a pox virus closely related to variola, has been used as an effective vaccine against smallpox. While it is clear that T cell responses are of major importance in eliciting protective immune responses, there is currently very little information available concerning the identity of the most effective regions, or "epitopes," that are activated following vaccination. Dr. Pinilla's group will conduct large-scale identification and validation of T cell epitopes of vaccinia virus.

Founded by Dr. Richard A. Houghten, President, in 1988, Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies is a non-profit biomedical research institute dedicated to the discovery of causes, treatments and cures for a wide variety of diseases and afflictions including heart disease, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, aging-relating conditions, and pain management. It is an internationally recognized research center in the field of combinatorial chemistry. Research is supported through grants from National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Diabetes National Research Group, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Alzheimer's and Aging Research Center, corporate contracts, and both private and corporate donations. More information is available at www.tpims.org.