Spring/Summer 2012 Aesculapian Magazine - University of Georgia ...

Quinn. Because of this, he says, there is an abundance of
vaccine “flavors” — modifications of BCG, adenoviral or
DNA-based vaccines — and everyone is trying to find the
right combination of factors to invoke a protective immune
response.
“The immunology [of tuberculosis] is really
interesting,” says Estes. “It’s a slow-growing organism, it goes
into latency and becomes inactive. It can also become drug
resistant.”
All of those factors make tuberculosis a complex and
worrisome disease to work with. Quinn and Estes have a
half a dozen vaccine candidates between them, in addition
to their efforts to determine the best animal models to use in
overall tuberculosis vaccine development.
By focusing on these complex models and their
applicability to humans, UGA will serve as a conduit for all
kinds of other tuberculosis research, says Quinn. “By doing
the animal modeling, we think we can fill a crucial hole in
testing before human trials,” he says.
Dr. Fred Quinn in his lab.
M. tuberculosis bacteria (red)
inside human lung cells. Internal
structural fibers (green) highlight
the shapes of the cells.
Image courtesy of Fred Quinn
Photo by Laura Smith