Duke University has received a $3.7 million contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop a rapid and accurate genomic-based diagnostic test that can determine if a person has been exposed to radiation from a dirty bomb or nuclear attack. In the event that all option years are exercised by the government, Duke University could receive up to $43.6 million from the contract.
"Since 9/11, there has been national concern about the possibility of a terrorist attack in the U.S. involving radiological or nuclear materials. Such an attack could kill or injure hundreds of thousands of people," says John Chute, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Duke and principal investigator of the project. "The problem is that right now, we don't have any way to rapidly screen thousands of people to determine their level of radiation exposure. Many people who suffer radiation injury can recover and survive if they are promptly and properly treated."
BARDA is part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It manages Project BioShield and the Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise, two organizations charged with the development of medical response to pandemic disease and countermeasures for chemical, biological and nuclear attacks.
The award builds upon Chute's previous collaborations at Duke with Joseph Nevins, Ph.D. and Nelson Chao, M.D. that identified a set of 25 genes in human peripheral blood that are activated in response to radiation. Chute says that radiation exposure causes a characteristic pattern of expression in those 25 genes and this "signature" can diagnose radiation status with over 90 percent accuracy. Chute's earlier work was supported by a $25 million grant from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that established the Duke Center for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation, now in its fifth year of funding.
The new contract calls for Chute and his team at Duke to further validate the accuracy of the gene profile in animal and human testing. Collaborators at DxTerity Diagnostics, a biotechnology company based in California, will utilize the Duke gene panel to develop a rapid gene expression test while colleagues at the University of Arizona and Invetech Corporation will design and develop the instrument in which the assay will be performed. The end product will be a portable, 30-minute test for radiation injury that can be used to triage thousands of individuals in a short time following a radiological or nuclear attack.