Researchers at UNM are devising a new method for making vaccines that fight Alzheimer's, arthritis, allergies, cancer and other chronic diseases.
Bryce Chackerian, an assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, said he and another UNM professor are researching a way to make the vaccines quick and inexpensive.
"If you take a target and put it on the outside of a virus particle, you can essentially fool the immune system into a response," Chackerian said. "We can use this technique to make immune responses to pretty much anything. The hope is to target things like chronic diseases and the symptoms of allergies that make you feel terrible."
Chackerian and professor David Peabody are cataloging possible vaccines that can be used to develop treatments for many diseases.
The library would also allow them to search for vaccines that respond to mutated viruses or outbreaks, Chackerian said.
"If there's some outbreak, and somebody gets infected, we could take antibodies from that person and use them to screen our library," he said. "In theory, we could develop a vaccine against something we haven't even identified yet. That's a long way in the future, but it's what we hope to achieve."
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Cosette Wheeler, a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, said the vaccine-making technique is also being worked on by researchers around the world.
But the technique still faces an uncertain future because it's still in its infancy, she said.
"It sounds good. But in the end, it's got a long way to go," she said. "They have to go through an enormous development process, partnering with industry with enormous sums of backing. They have to show effectiveness and safety. It's a multi-decade process to bring it through to human use, and it can fail at any stage of the process."
She said the research faces a major obstacle: The vaccines might cause severe side effects.
"The sad truth is that the chances of side effects are pretty high," she said. "The proof of the pudding with these things will be that, with humans, the benefit outweighs the side effects, and the side effects aren't severe."
Chackerian and Peabody still have a long way to go.
The Food and Drug Administration have a three-phase approval process.
Less than 5 percent of all experimental studies make it from Phase 1 to Phase 3, she said.
But they are receiving funding to continue their research.
STC.UNM -- a nonprofit corporation owned by the University - awarded Chackerian and Peabody $25,000 in December.
Chackerian said they are spending the money to continue cataloging treatments and develop a vaccine that fools the immune system into responding to an allergic reaction.
The technique doesn't run a high risk of side effects and could be produced inexpensively, he said.
Lisa Kuuttila, president and CEO of the UNM Science and Technology Corporation, said the University could leap forward into the health care industry if the research is successful.
"There are so many possibilities, from seasonal allergies to infectious agents that might be used for bioterrorism," Kuuttila said. "Most vaccines take many months. The benefit of this technology is that you can create a vaccine very rapidly, and it can be customized."
