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NIH grants researcher nearly $4 million for schistosomiasis vaccine
The NIH recently granted Afzal A. Siddiqui, PhD, a research scientist at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, a $3.82 million phase 2 grant to prepare a schistosomiasis vaccine for human clinical trials, according to a press release.
More than 200 million people worldwide are infected with schistosomiasis, considered to be one of the most harmful parasitic diseases, second only to malaria, according to the CDC. The parasites that cause schistosomiasis live in freshwater snails, and cercariae, the infectious form of the parasite, emerge from the snail and contaminate the water. People exposed to the contaminated water can become infected.
Afzal A. Siddiqui
Once the parasite makes contact with a person, it burrows into the skin and migrates to the lungs and liver where it matures into an adult form, the release said. There are no commercially available vaccines against the disease, which primarily affects people in Asia, Africa and South America.
With the NIH grant, as well as funding from Darrick Carter, PhD, president and CEO of PAI Life Sciences in Seattle, and an ongoing Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant, Siddiqui and colleagues will acquire more than $11.5 million to investigate the SchistoShield vaccine, which could impact up to 1 billion people, the release said.
“Dr. Siddiqui is the quintessential investigator and has brought distinction not only to this research but to our university,” Tedd L. Mitchell, MD, president of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, said in the release. “We are extremely proud of his work and congratulate him on this NIH grant.”
Photo credit: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center