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	International Vaccine Centre (InterVac)
	The Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise (PREVENT)
	Groundbreaking vaccine against E. coli O157:H7
	Improved vaccines for newborns to impact global health

Improved vaccines for newborns to impact global health

Past news releases:

• May 17, 2006: Maternal Immunization May Protect Newborns from Whooping Cough – U of S VIDO Study
• June 27, 2005: Initiative Selects 43 Groundbreaking Projects
• June 27, 2005: Canadian Health Researchers Contribute to Fighting Disease in the Third World
• July 7, 2005: VIDO research into vaccines for newborns offered funding by the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative

The grand challenge: protecting newborns from disease

It is more than $480 million US, every penny earmarked to make an impact on public health in developing countries. The Grand Challenges in Global Health project was launched in 2003 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to spark an international research thrust towards overcoming the world’s major obstacles in international health.

The last time a “grand challenges” competition was launched on such a scale, the field of mathematics changed dramatically. The early 20th century mathematician David Hilbert called on mathematicians around the world to overcome prescribed mathematical roadblocks.

According to the Gates Foundation, solutions to this 21st century set of grand challenges “will enable major advances in research against diseases of the poor, and the development of products that will save millions of lives.”

Upon the announcement of the initiative in 2003, Bill Gates described it as one of discovery and invention. “By accelerating research to overcome scientific obstacles in AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, millions of lives could be saved,” he said.

The call for proposals to address 14 identified “grand challenges in global health” produced more than 1,500 submissions.

In June 2005, the competition results were announced. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was joined by the the Wellcome Trust, which committed $27.1 million, and an additional $4.5 million from CIHR.

The team at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) was one of four Canadian teams. The team’s proposal, to improve and develop vaccines for newborns, was offered a grant of $5.6 million US over five years.

Very young children are the most vulnerable of all members of society to infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization, more than one million children under the age of five died in 2002 of diseases preventable by widely used vaccines. However, very few of these vaccines are effective in newborns or very young children.

The project, titled “Linking innate and specific immunity to develop single dose vaccines for neonates,” is focused on eliminating both the need for booster immunizations and for needles, while creating vaccines that protect newborns. The “template” disease for the development of the technology is whooping cough, or pertussis, which still represents one of the most important diseases of young children worldwide.

“The truly exciting element of this technology,” says Lorne Babiuk, past VIDO director and principal investigator for the project, “is that it can be applied to numerous vaccines for both newborns and adults. It will have a significant impact on society in general, and especially on health in developing countries.”

The project unites researchers from VIDO, Dalhousie University, the University of British Columbia and the International Vaccine Institute (Korea) for the development of technologies leading to broad immune protection for newborns and very young children. It builds on a neonatal immunization research program already well underway at VIDO led by Dr. Volker Gerdts, VIDO Associate Director (Research) and scientific manager of the Grand Challenge project. [TOP]