Medical Countermeasures Against Radiological and Nuclear Threats

Fiscal Year (FY) 2005-2007 Awardees

Contracts | Grants | Other Funding

Contract Awardees

Medical Countermeasures Against Radiological Threats: Product Development Support Services (FY 2005)

• University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
  Thomas MacVittie

Development of Improved DTPA for Radionuclide Chelation
(FY 2006)

• University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
  Michael Jay
• Nanotherapeutics, Alachua, FL
  James Talton
• SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
  Gita Shankar

Grant Awardees

Centers for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation (CMCR) (FY 2005)

CMCR Individual Project Descriptions (PDF)

• Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY
• David Brenner
  Center for High Throughput, Minimally Invasive, Radiation Biodosimetry
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
  Alan D’Andrea
  Dana-Farber/Harvard Center for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation
• Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
  Nelson Chao
  Radiation Countermeasures Centers of Research Excellence (RadCCORE)
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
  George Georges
  Radiation Dose-Dependent Interventions
• Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
  John Moulder
  Post-Irradiation Intervention to Mitigate and Treat Non-Hematological Injuries
• University of California David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA
  William McBride
  UCLA Center for Biological Radioprotectors
• University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
  Joel Greenberger
  Mitochondrial Targeting Against Radiation Damage
• University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY
  Paul Okunieff
  Center for Biophysical Assessment and Risk Management Following Radiation

Protecting the Immune System Against Radiation (FY 2005)

• Cleveland Biolabs, Inc., Cleveland, OH
  Andrei Gudkov
  Protecting the immune system by modulators of p53 and NF-kB
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
  George Georges
  Cytokines for immune protection from acute irradiation
• University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
  Amelia Bartholomew
  Restoring hematopoiesis following radiation injury
• University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD
  Thomas MacVittie
  Immune reconstitution in non-human primates

Radionuclide Decorporation Agents for Radiation/Nuclear Emergencies (FY 2006)

• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
  Tatiana G. Levitskaia
  Biomaterials as Decorporation Agents for Radionuclides
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
  Charles Timchalk
  Development of Selective Nanoporous Sorbents for Radionuclide Decorporation
• University of California/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
  Kenneth N. Raymond
  Biomimetic Lanthanide & Actinide Decorporation Agents: Preclinical Development
• University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
  Raymond J. Bergeron
  Desferrithiocin Analogue Actinide Decorporation Agents
• University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT
  Scott C. Miller
  Amphipathic Oral Chelators and Radionuclide Contamination

Medical Countermeasures to Restore Gastrointestinal Function after Radiation Exposure: Project Bioshield (RC1) (FY 2007)

• Children's Hospital and Research Center at Oakland
  Julie D. Saba
  Endogenous sphingosine-1-phosphate as a radioprotector of intestinal tissues
• Duke University
  David Kirsch
  Dissecting the Mechanism of the GI Syndrome to Restore GI Function after Radiation
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
  George Georges
  Improving Gastrointestinal Recovery after Radiation
• RxBio, Inc.
  Wenlin Deng
  Radioprotective / Radiomitigating Efficacy of Rx100 in the Gastrointestinal Tract
• University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
  Alexey G. Ryazanov
  Development of New Drugs that Protect Gastrointestinal Tract from Radiation
• University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
  Roger Howell
  Protection against radiation-induced damage to intestinal nutrient transport
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  Alexander Burnett
  Oral Interleukin 11 as a Countermeasure against Radiation Injury to Gut
• University of Maryland, Baltimore
  Terez Shea-Donohue
  Novel Therapy for Post-Irradiation Insult to Gut Mucosa in Non-Human Primates
• University of Tennessee Health Science Center
  Gabor Tigyi
  Development of a Novel Gastrointestinal Radiomitigator
• University of Rochester Medical Center
  Lurong Zhang
  A Novel Mitigation Agent for Gastrointestinal Syndrome of Acute Radiation Injury

Medical Countermeasures to Enhance Platelet Regeneration and Increase Survival Following Radiation Exposure (RC1) (FY 2008)

• Amelia M. Bartholomew, M.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, IL
• George Georges, M.D. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
• Andrei V. Gudkov, Ph.D., Cleveland Biolabs, Inc., Buffalo, NY
• Holger Karsunky, Ph.D., Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc., San Carlos, CA
• Kathleen E. Rodgers, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Mechanisms, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Radiation Injury from a Nuclear Accident or Terrorist Attack (R01) (FY 2008

• R. Shane Addleman, D.Sc., Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Richland, WA
• Susan M. Bailey, Ph.D., Colorado State University, Fort Collins
• Tao Cheng, M.D., University of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh, PA
• Andrei V. Gudkov, Ph.D., Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation, Buffalo, NY
• David G. Kirsch, M.D., Ph.D., Duke University, Durham, NC
• James Palis, M.D., University of Rochester, NY
• Amanda G. Paulovich, M.D., Ph.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
• Gabor J. Tigyi, M.D., Ph.D., University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis
• Marcel R.M. van den Brink, M.D., Ph.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, New York, NY
• Daohong Zhou, M.D., Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
  

Radiation Combined Injury: Radiation Exposure in Combination with Burn, Wound, Trauma, or Infection (Phased Innovation Award [R21/R33] (FY 2008

• Shyam Biswal, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
• Nelson J. Chao, M.D., Duke University, Durham, NC
• John R. Fike, Ph.D., University of California San Francisco
• M. Waleed Gaber, Ph.D., and Duane D. Miller, Ph.D., University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis
• Juliann G. Kiang, Ph.D., Armed Forced Radiobiology Research Institute, Bethesda, MD
• Elizabeth J. Kovacs, Ph.D., Loyola University Chicago, IL
• James A. Lederer, Ph.D., Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA
• David M. Rocke, Ph.D., and R. Rivkah Isseroff, M.D., University of California Davis
• Ping Wang, M.D., Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY
• Hartmut Weiler, Ph.D., Blood Center of Wisconsin, Incorporated, Milwaukee

Other Funding

Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute

Program Background

Established in 2005, the Inter-Agency Agreement between the NIAID and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) funds research in several areas related to the challenges encountered following radiological or nuclear events. These include: 1) identifying who has been exposed to radiation and estimating the dose that they have received, and 2) providing countermeasures to mitigate or treat radiation injury. To this end, AFRRI is funded to establish inter-laboratory cytogenetics comparisons, and automate the detection of radiation-induced changes in the DNA, with the hope that this will speed the triage of potentially radiation-exposed populations in the wake of a terrorist attack. Another aspect of the funding is the screening of potential countermeasures, to determine their efficacy in treating radiation damage in a rodent survival model.

Research Highlights

Funding through the IAA with AFRRI has led to the first inter-laboratory comparison of the DNA dicentric assay since 1988. Long recognized as the gold standard for determination of radiation exposure, the dicentric assay has traditionally been a very time-consuming and low-throughput means of determining radiation dose received. In addition to validating use of the assay across 5 international laboratories, parallel NIAID-funded work at AFRRI has automated dicentric sample processing for triage of large populations, with a throughput of approximately 500 samples per laboratory per week. Taken together, these advancements represent important steps toward establishing a domestic network of biodosimetry laboratories, similar to those already in place in Canada and across Europe.  In addition, to date AFRRI has screened more than 10 potential countermeasures, using their mouse model of radiation exposure.

National Cancer Institute

Program Background

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are cooperating on specific research and development projects that fall within the following general areas: 1) development of safe and effective medical countermeasures to prevent, mitigate, and treat the immediate and long-term medical effects of ionizing radiation; 2) improvement of the basic understanding of radiation-related health risks associated with types and levels of radiation exposure (epidemiology & dosimetry), mechanisms of radiation injury, and host responses; and, 3) development of biology-based diagnostic assays or biomarkers to assess cellular and tissue damage following exposure to ionizing radiation.  The following laboratories/programs within intramural NCI are being funded:

• Dr. William Bonner (Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology)
• Dr. Frank Gonzalez (Laboratory of Metabolism)
• Dr. Martha Linet and Dr. Steve Simon (Radiation Epidemiology Branch)
• Dr. James Mitchell (Radiation Biology Branch)
• Dr. Kevin Camphausen (Center for Cancer Research)

Research Highlights

Scientific accomplishments for this program include:

• Finding of a large bystander effect in 3-dimensional skin and airway radiation exposure models. This has implications for effects of partial body irradiations or inhomogeneous exposures.
• Demonstration of a clear separation in metabolomic signatures between sham and irradiated in vitro samples, with little variation between sham-irradiated cells, and identification of several candidate metabolomic markers for radiation exposure.
• Analysis of I-131 biokinetic data from 140 patients treated with I-131 for hyperthyroid, EPR analysis of 103 teeth from Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan populations exposed to radiation, and testing of a novel biodosimetry system based on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).
• Synthesis of 8 nitroxide analogs and irradiation of 1,275 mice (2 strains) in order to evaluate the efficacy of Tempol food in minimizing radiation-induced carcinogenesis.

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