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$18.8M in Grants to Help Institute Take Aim at Infectious Diseases

Some of the world’s most infectious diseases have eluded researchers working to come up with effective vaccines to combat them. Now, researchers with the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology will join forces with teams from Australia, Brazil and Papua New Guinea to tackle some of the toughest — dengue virus, malaria, smallpox and tuberculosis — in a five-year set of grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health.

The grants, which total $18.8 million and were announced Dec. 17, are designed to increase the understanding of some of the world’s most infectious diseases for better designing broad-based vaccines.

Smallpox, the only human infectious disease to have been eradicated, is included in the set of projects, as it represents a major bioterrorism concern.

Other diseases involved in the project, such as malaria, have no vaccines available. In the past decade, however, advances in genomic sequencing have allowed scientists a better look at the molecular blueprint of the malaria virus and other known pathogens, according to Alessandro Sette, director of the La Jolla Institute’s Center for Infectious Disease and one of the project’s principal investigators.

By identifying areas on the virus that trigger an immune response, Sette said his team of researchers ultimately hopes to hand over enough information to vaccine developers to one day produce an effective weapon for preventing the spread of deadly diseases.

“In a way, the scientific community has cut their teeth by going from relatively simple viruses to the most complex,” said Sette. “A lot of the technologies that are proposed in this new set of projects are really taking it to the next level of complexity.”

Much of the work conducted by the La Jolla Institute’s scientists will focus on identifying epitopes, or areas on a virus that cause the body’s immune system to launch an attack. Last year, the institute unveiled what it called the world’s largest collection of epitope data, which is available free online to researchers. The site, iedb.org, provides data on more than 65,000 epitopes.

Founded in 1988, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology is a biomedical research nonprofit focused on improving human health through increased understanding of the immune system. Its research staff includes more than 100 Ph.D.s and M.D.s, according to its Web site.

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Deal Or No Deal: CareFusion Corp., a publicly held spinoff of Cardinal Health Inc., recommended on Dec. 17 that shareholders turn down a deal to offer their shares to TRC Capital Corp. for $23.50 apiece, or 5 percent below the prior day’s closing price.

A Carmel Valley-based medical device maker, CareFusion said TRC has made other unsolicited offers for shares of other companies in the past. The mini tender offer called for the purchase of up to 4 million shares representing almost 2 percent of the company’s outstanding shares. The offer expires Jan. 14.

Shares of CareFusion, traded under the symbol CFN on the New York Stock Exchange, have traded between $17.25 and $26.99 in the past 52 weeks.

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Naomi Judd To Speak: Country music star Naomi Judd, who formed the mother-daughter singing duo The Judds with daughter Wynonna, plans to share her story about living with hepatitis C at a Scripps Health event Jan. 22 at Paradise Point Resort & Spa.

Naomi Judd’s music career was cut short after she learned she had contracted the potentially fatal liver disease from an infected needle when she worked as a registered nurse. Now fully recovered, Judd advocates for those living with chronic conditions, including persistent pain.

For more information or to register for the event, call Scripps Conference Services & Continuing Medical Education at 858-652-5400 or e-mail

med.edu@scrippshealth.org.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine’s post-traumatic stress disorder project at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

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$10M To Aid Scripps Encinitas: Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas said Dec. 10 that it has received a $10 million gift from the Leichtag Family Foundation that will help finance the building of a two-story, 60,000-square-foot critical care center that will double the size of its emergency department.

The gift, in honor of the late hospital benefactors Lee and Andre “Toni” Leichtag, represented the largest philanthropic donation in the hospital’s 45-year history. Toni, who passed away in November, and Lee, who passed away in 2007, made their first donation to the hospital in 1979. Before this gift, they donated more than $7 million to Scripps Encinitas.

Their most recent gift puts the hospital’s fundraising campaign almost halfway toward its initial goal of raising $38 million in philanthropic funds.

Overall, the $350 million project calls for renovating the main hospital and building a three-story parking garage, central energy plant, acute care center and three-story medical office building that will also serve as an outpatient center.

The plans are part of Scripps’ goal of accommodating population growth until 2030.

Please send health care-related items to Heather Chambers at hchambers@sdbj.com.

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