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Producing Flu Vaccines Will Be Faster and Cheaper, Thanks to Technology by MAES Scientist

Technology developed by an MAES researcher has been licensed to produce new vaccines that will protect people against various strains of flu, including avian flu caused by the H5N1 virus. This technology allows the vaccines to be produced more quickly and less expensively than current methods.

"The recent highly virulent avian flu cases in Asia and fears about a pandemic have highlighted the problems with traditional influenza vaccine production methods, particularly the length of time to produce a new vaccine and the amount of vaccine that can be produced on short notice," said Paul Coussens, MAES animal science and microbiology and molecular genetics scientist and director of the MSU Center for Animal Functional Genomics.

Building on work done by graduate student Amin Abujoub and assistant professor David Reilly, Coussens and his collaborators have found a cell line that will grow almost every type of flu virus: avian, swine, equine and human. In cell-culture-based vaccine production, scientists infect cells with flu strains. Then they grow the virus in large vats or bioreactors. The virus is killed and purified to make the vaccine.

This research has led to five MSU patents on the use of the cell line for vaccine growth and production.

For the past 50 years, flu vaccines have been made by injecting 11-day-old fertilized chicken eggs with a flu virus strain. The virus grows in the eggs and is then killed and purified to make the vaccine. Each egg is injected with only one virus strain (a typical flu vaccine contains three strains) and produces enough virus for one or two doses. This means that huge numbers of fertilized chicken eggs are needed -- 270 million or more -- to produce a sufficient vaccine supply for the United States. The process is time-consuming and inflexible because vaccine makers have to order eggs months ahead of time. If there are any problems with the eggs, such as infection by another virus, the entire lot of flu vaccine is lost. Also, anyone with an egg allergy can't have the vaccine.

"Growing cell-culture-based flu virus reduces the cost and the time needed to produce the vaccine," Coussens said. "We'll also be able to produce much more vaccine in a smaller space. And the virus that is grown is more pure. People with allergies to eggs are likely to benefit the most because they'll be able to have flu shots without the threat of allergic complications."

HepaLife Technologies, Inc., a biotechnology company based in Vancouver, B.C., has licensed the technology from MSU and plans to produce cell-culture-based flu vaccine.

"We want to proceed as quickly as possible," said Harmel Rayat, president of HepaLife. "There's no time to waste. Sooner or later the avian flu virus will be in North America. It's not 'if,' it's 'when.'"

"A successful cell-culture-based flu vaccine has the potential to reduce production time compared with traditional vaccine production methods and should allow rapid expansion of vaccine production in the face of a pandemic, whether it's high pathogenicity H5N1 virus or another type," Coussens said. "We can be growing cell-culture-based virus within a year. To produce vaccine, we need to follow federal guidelines and obtain Food and Drug Administration approval -- a process that could take some time. A cell-culture-based vaccine could be available in 3 to 5 years."

Strategic Partnership Grants Focus on the Bioeconomy

Three projects with connections to the MAES have been funded through the Strategic Partnership Grants program by the MSU Foundation.

The projects are:

Cellulose Biorefining to Ethanol: Developing Generic Technology -- Bruce Dale, MAES chemical engineering and materials science researcher and associate director of the MSU Office of Bio-based Technologies. Dale will use the grant to integrate the AFEX (ammonia fiber expansion) process, a pretreatment process that makes the breakdown of cellulose from biomass more efficient, with subsequent processing by enzymes and microbes to produce fuel ethanol. MSU has proprietary interests in AFEX and related technologies.

Plant Metabolic Engineering for Feedstock Production -- Dean Della Penna, MAES plant biochemistry and molecular biologist. Della Penna will use the grant to study the mechanisms in plants that control how much carbon is allocated to different compounds, including how plants can be manipulated to make more of specific types of carbon, such as starch -- which is easier to break down than plant cell walls -- that can then be fermented into biofuels or other valuable bio-based chemicals.

A Next Generation Genomic Sequencing Center for MSU -- Andreas Weber, associate professor of plant biology. To give MSU scientists access to the best available technology for genomic research, Weber will use the grant to establish a state-of-the-art high-throughput genotyping and sequencing center at MSU. This will be the first such center in the state. The MAES is also helping to support this genomic sequencing center.

The Strategic Partnership Grants program awards major grants, ranging from $500,000 to more than $1 million, in key areas of research growth. These awards are used to leverage matching support from other sources, to provide seed funding for the development of new knowledge and to initiate new centers of excellence at Michigan State University.

Nugent Named Cherry Person of the Year

James Nugent, coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station and MSU Extension district horticulturist, was recognized as 2006 Cherry Industry Person of the Year by the Cherry Marketing Institute.

The award is given yearly by the cherry industry to honor a person's "strength, innovation, growth and ways in which they have contributed to the industry."

"This is very humbling," Nugent said. "I couldn't have achieved this without the help of the station and the great growers who work so closely with us. With the help of everyone, we are making the cherry industry stronger today than it was yesterday."

"He is always behind the scenes," said Philip Korson, president of the Cherry Marketing Institute. "He was always my last person to call before I would move to the next level [of research]."

"This award is not just for him, it is also for MSU," said J. Ian Gray, MSU vice president for research and graduate studies and former MAES director. "This is a very momentous occasion for him, and MSU has been fortunate to hire someone who is so dedicated to what they do."

"It is about cherries, people and partnerships," said Jeff Armstrong, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. "Jim exemplifies that mission. He always gets done what needs to be done."

Nugent and his wife, Toddy Rieger, and their three children have a cherry farm in Leelanau County.

Dale Named Associate Director of MSU Office of Bio-based Technologies

Bruce Dale, a nationally known leader in exploring alternatives to fossil fuels, has been named associate director of the new Office of Bio-based Technologies at Michigan State University.

Dale, MAES chemical engineering scientist and faculty adviser to the MSU Biomass Conversion Research Laboratory, is an expert in research aimed at converting agricultural bounty – such as corn – into fuel. Such materials, called plant biomass, have the potential of providing cost-effective and environmentally beneficial ways to generate fuels, chemicals, materials, foods and feeds from renewable resources.

The office’s goal is to marshal MSU research and resources in the plant sciences, chemistry, agricultural sciences and engineering fields to help foster connections with public and private sector initiatives designed to transform Michigan’s economy.

“Dr. Dale brings a lot of energy and a wealth of technical expertise to the office,” said Steven Pueppke, director of the Office of Bio-based Technologies and MAES director. “He’s already begun to lead a series of campus conversations to coordinate our activities on the bioeconomy and to strengthen linkages with partners in the private sector.”

Dale describes his role as providing “technical reality” stemming from his 30 years of work in biomass technology and taking such technology to the marketplace from the laboratory.

“I’ll be trying to help put together large proposals and working to link plant science researchers and others with engineers to build relationships allowing us to move forward,” Dale said.

Dale, who has been at MSU for 10 years, has developed a patented process called ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX), which makes the breakdown of cellulose more efficient, thus tackling one of the thornier problems of producing ethanol.

Dale received his doctorate in chemical engineering from Purdue University. He has received 13 U.S. and international patents and has filed eight patent disclosures during the past 2 years.

Dietz Featured in New Book on Global Challenges

A new book featuring scientific assessments of the environmental threats confronting the planet contains an essay by Thomas Dietz, director of the MSU Environmental Science and Policy Program.

"Science Magazine's State of the Planet 2006-2007" contains three dozen essays and news stories written some by some of the world's most respected researchers, policy experts and science journalists.

Dietz's co-authored essay, "The Struggle to Govern the Commons," won the 2005 Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America. Dietz wrote the essay with Elinor Ostrom, co-director of the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change at Indiana University, and Paul C. Stern at the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Education at the U.S. National Academies in Washington, D.C.

The essays explore a range of crucial issues: human population, freshwater and marine resources, energy, air pollution, food security, chronic disease and climate change. The Earth's resources are closely connected to the health of the environment, says Donald Kennedy, Science editor, in the book's introduction. The quality of fresh water depends on the condition of watershed forests. Agriculture depends on the vitality of surrounding ecosystems that are home to bees and birds. Climate change affects the distribution of plants and animals in the wild.

The new book is a compilation of essays and news stories previously published in Science and recently updated, plus an introduction and three new summary essays by Kennedy. At the heart of the book is a landmark 1968 essay in Science, "The Tragedy of the Commons," by the late Garret Hardin, formerly a professor of human ecology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Other essays in the new book originally were published in Science in November and December 2003 as part of a series called "The State of the Planet."

NW Horticultural Station MAEAP Verified

The Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station, in Traverse City, has been verified in the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) Farmstead System. This means that the station has done a risk assessment and has a plan in place to address the environmental risks of the entire farmstead, from safe fuel handling to proper pesticide storage. The plan focuses primarily on protecting surface and groundwater and has been reviewed and approved by a MAEAP representative during a verification visit.

"We have always tried to be proactive in addressing environmental concerns," said Bill Klein, farm manager for the station. "The MAEAP program has given us a great tool to make sure we continue and improve on this effort. Additionally, we hope to use our MAEAP verification to showcase simple approaches that growers can use to help protect the environment."

MAEAP is a proactive program that helps farms of all sizes and all commodities voluntarily prevent or minimize agricultural pollution risks. MAEAP teaches farmers how to identify and prevent environmental risks and comply with state and federal environmental regulations. Farmers who successfully complete the three phases of a MAEAP system are rewarded by becoming verified in that system.

MAEAP was developed by a coalition of agricultural producers, commodity groups, state and federal agencies and conservation and environmental groups. Though the Michigan Department of Agriculture is the verifying agency, MAEAP is a partnership effort, not a government or regulatory program.

MAES Researcher's Process Makes Harvesting Energy from Corn More Efficient and Creates Valuable Chemicals

A process patented by Michigan State University makes extracting energy from crops such as corn and soybeans more efficient. Now researchers are cataloging valuable uses of the process's chemical byproducts.

The AFEX (ammonia fiber expansion) process, developed by Bruce Dale, MAES chemical engineering scientist and associate director of the MSU Office of Bio-based Technologies, pretreats plant biomass (leaves, stems and stalks) with ammonia, which boosts the breakdown of cellulose into sugars by about 500 percent. These sugars can then be fermented into fuels, such as ethanol, or other chemicals.

"We know the AFEX process works," said Venkatesh Balan, a visiting research associate who is working with Dale. "Now we are studying the other compounds that are formed as a result of the process. Many of them have value for industry. Lactic acid, for example, is used in making bioplastics."

Balan speaks at a breakout session titled "Feedstock Pretreatment and Hydrolysis" July 13 at the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing in Toronto. The participants will discuss techniques to get the most energy and valuable compounds from biomass.

The AFEX process, though not the only technique to break down cellulose efficiently, is one of a very few processes that are economically attractive. Balan came to MSU specifically to work with Dale on the AFEX process.

"If we know how much of each compound is released during the AFEX process, that adds value to the process," Balan explained. "Then we will detail the benefits of each compound. This will make the AFEX process more commercial and valuable."

Last Updated: March 17, 2009
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