Spaceflight Platforms Toward Innovations in Infectious Disease Control: A Vision for Commercialization

Transcription

1 Spaceflight Platforms Toward Innovations in Infectious Disease Control: A Vision for Commercialization Cheryl A. Nickerson, Ph.D. Associate Professor Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology

2 Why Infectious Disease? Infectious disease is a leading cause of death world-wide #1 killer of children and young adults National and global social, economic, political, and security impact Total cost in US exceeds $120 billion annually due to direct medical and lost productivity costs. Globally staggering costs. New and re-emerging infectious disease, antibiotic resistance, lack of vaccines, bioterrorism threat Global market for preventative vaccines is $22 billion Outpacing infectious disease!

3 Investing in Infectious Disease Research Current estimates to bring a new drug to market ~ $1 billion and requires extended development times of over a decade before it reaches patients Even incremental decreases in this cost and time are critical Spaceflight holds tremendous promise to benefit infectious disease research by bridging translational gap between scientific discovery and vaccine development

4 Infectious Disease Research and Spaceflight Major advances in our knowledge about biological systems - studying their responses to extreme environments - (ex. temp, ph, etc) - led to major advances in global human health breakthroughs Spaceflight is another extreme environment which offers tremendous potential to provide new insight into biological responses - including infectious disease Spaceflight produces an environment that is relevant to conditions encountered by the pathogen during infection in the human host but gravity masks key cellular responses on Earth.

5 Commercial Development through Spaceflight Spaceflight induces novel changes in both human and microbial cells directly relevant to infectious disease; Immune function, Antibiotic resistance, and Virulence that cannot be mimicked by traditional experimental approaches on Earth Identify target mechanisms in space Investigate target mechanisms on Earth Discovery of previously unknown molecular targets and mechanisms Commercial product development Incremental decreases in cost of drugs/vaccines and time to clinical bedside

6 Our Research Interests The pathogen In-flight infections Risk assessment/ Countermeasures The host Low fluid shear culture environment Physiologically relevant Medically important phenotypes not observed during conventional culture Vaccines/Therapeutics for treatment and prevention

7 MICROBE launches on board Shuttle Atlantis, Sept. 9, 2006 MDRV launches on board Shuttle Endeavour, March 11, 2008 Astronaut Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper activates MICROBE on orbit STL-IMMUNE launches on board Shuttle Discovery, April 5, 2010 Commander Dominic Gorie activates MDRV on orbit Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki performs status check of STL- IMMUNE on orbit

8 Spaceflight uniquely alters Salmonella gene expression, stress resistance and virulence Salmonella typhimurium Virulence Modulate ion levels Counteracts enhanced virulence of pathogens in spaceflight - Therapeutics Stress Resistance Gene Expression 167 genes, virulence genes down Hfq master regulator Gene regulatory proteins identified can be targeted for Vaccine development. Hfq Common spaceflight response regulator master switch conserved between different pathogens Nickerson et. al., 2000, Infect. Immun; Wilson, et al., 2002, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA; Wilson, et al., 2002, Appl. Environ. Microbiol.; Wilson et al., 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA: Wilson et al, 2008, PLoS ONE; Crabbe et al., 2010, Environ Microbiol.; Crabbe et al, 2010, Submitted

9 Moving Forward to Create Deliverable Biotechnologies to Combat Infectious Diseases: Spaceflight Vaccine & Therapeutic Development Prospectus Collaboration with Dr. Roy Curtiss III; Pioneer and world leader in development of vaccines against infectious diseases Successful in the distinct arenas of academic and commercial research

10 What Does Spaceflight Offer? A unique environment for innovative discoveries to advance human health Novel environment offers insight into fundamental biological response parameters that are directly relevant to infectious disease - and which cannot be observed using traditional experimental approaches Targets identified through spaceflight offer important direction into development of therapeutics against infectious disease Innovative technological breakthroughs to reduce risk of infectious disease for general public on Earth.

11 VISION FOR COMMERCIALIZATION FROM DISCOVERY TO THE CLINICAL BEDSIDE FLIGHT EXPERIMENTS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS TOWARD TREATMENT AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE PATENTABLE VACCINES, THERAPEUTICS, DIAGNOSTICS

12 Acknowledgements Arizona State University Jennifer Barrila Shameema Sarker Andrea Radtke Aurelie Crabbe Richard Davis Rebecca Forsyth Roy Curtiss III NASA Johnson Space Center Mark Ott Duane Pierson Mayra Nelman-Gonzales Sarah Castro Neal Pellis Villanova University James Wilson - Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper and the crew of STS Commander Domic Gorie and the crew of STS Stephanie Wilson, Naoko Yamazaki, and the crew of STS-131 University of Colorado HSC Michael Schurr Oklahoma City University Kent Buchanan Tulane University Lisa Morici Kerstin Honer zu Bentrup Rajee Ramamurthy Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Michael McClelland Steffen Porwollik NASA ARC Steve Hing Macarena Parra Paula Dumars Kevin Sato Nicole Rayl Kennedy Space Center Ramona Bober Kelly Norwood Jennifer Devich Ashleigh Ruggles Max Planck Institute Joerg Vogel University of Arizona George Tsaprailis