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New center will study STIs

With $2.5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, doctors and researchers at UNC and five other universities hope to prevent it several different sexually transmitted infections.

With the funding, staff members at the newly created Southeastern Sexually Transmitted Infections Cooperative Research Center are looking specifically at the infections gonorrhea and chancroid, their bacterial causes and possible vaccinations.

Fred Sparling, a UNC professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology, will lead the new center.

“It is focused now almost entirely on understanding the basic science that will hopefully lead to vaccinations for gonorrhea and chancroid,” he said. “Both of those are difficult in themselves for people who have them and are co-factors for getting HIV.”

Sparling said much of the center’s work will be a continuation of ongoing research initiatives, but there are also new projects.

“There’s one brand-new project, which is headed by Dr. Alex Duncan, in the department of medicine at UNC, who is trying to understand the innate immune responses to gonorrhea,” Sparling said.

This research will help understand how the body reacts to infections and how it will react to the vaccine, researchers said.

The new center is an interdisciplinary initiative conducted with individuals at UNC, Duke University, Emory University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.

Sparling said UNC will have a large role in the center’s operations, housing three of the six research projects and two of the three project cores.

UNC leads the microbiology core and the administrative core, while Duke leads the immunology core.

“A little over half of the work is done at UNC and the leadership comes from UNC,” Sparling added.

He was careful to mention the teamwork and collaborative nature of the project, and said all the partners are working on various parts of the research.

UNC applied for the funding in 2008, and researchers said they are pleased with the amount.

“We got all that we asked for, amazingly enough,” Sparling said.

Sexually transmitted infections

The new Southeastern STI Cooperative Research Center will focus on the causes of gonorrhea and chancroid and potential vaccinations.

Gonorrhea

  • Caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a bacterium that grows and multiplies easily in the warm, moist areas of the reproductive tract.
  • Any sexually active person can be infected with gonorrhea.
  • Several antibiotics can cure gonorrhea, but drug-resistant strains are increasing in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

 

Chancroid

  • Caused by the bacteria Haemophilus ducreyi.
  • Found mainly in developing and Third World countries. Only a few cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year.
  • Can be treated with antibiotics.
  • Symptoms include a small bump or ulcer on the genitals.

 


Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.

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