MSU gets $10.5 million to find bioterror drugs -- fast

By GAIL SCHONTZLER hronicle Staff Writer

Montana State University has won a $10.5 million federal contract to start a fast-track hunt for new drugs to fight diseases like anthrax that could be used by bioterrorists.

The ultimate goal is to come up with a pill that people could swallow to strengthen their natural immune defenses, said Mark Jutila, 44, the MSU immunology professor in charge of the research.

The idea is akin to folk remedies like vitamin C, echinacea or zinc that people take in hopes of warding off colds, but it would be based on solid science.

"The exciting thing is the size of this award allows us to move very fast," Jutila said. "The reason why this contract is so large is there is an urgency to find ways to combat bioterrorism organisms."

In addition to doing basic science, MSU scientists will work with Ligocyte, a 5-year-old Bozeman company that has been developing drugs to treat inflammatory and infectious diseases. Ligocyte will work with MSU to screen up to 200,000 compounds to find the most effective drug.

The MSU research project will allow Ligocyte to expand its equipment, software and expertise, said Mike McCue, Ligocyte's chief executive officer.

The company has 33 employees now and will soon hire 12 more to work on this and other research, McCue said. Ground-breaking is expected in a few weeks on a new building for the growing company in the Advanced Technology Park.

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government has been pouring billions into building up the nation's bioterrorism defenses -- from stockpiling vaccines to funding research.

Spending at the National Institutes of Health on bioterror research has skyrocketed, from $53 million before Sept. 11 to $1.5 billion last year -- the largest single increase in NIH history.

The government is focusing on anthrax, smallpox and plague.

Such lethal organisms won't be tested at the MSU labs, however, Jutila said.

His team of nine researchers will investigate how to boost the body's "innate" defenses by focusing on one cell in the intestines, called the gamma-delta T-cell.

Intestines don't get a lot of respect from most people, but like the skin or saliva, they are one of the primary systems for keeping nasty infections out of the body.

"It's our largest immune tissue, exposed to the greatest array of infections," Jutila said.

He plans to study the gamma-delta T-cell "receptors," which recognize infections and kick-start the body's defenses.

If the T-cells could be made stronger, faster or more numerous, they would ward off a variety of infections. That could be even better than a vaccine, which fights off one specific organism and takes days longer to work.

If this idea works, Jutila said, it might take exposure to 100,000 salmonella organisms to make a person sick, instead of 1,000.

MSU's five-year contract, which began Dec. 30, was awarded after competition and review by other scientists and isn't an "earmark" added to a spending bill by Montana's politicians in Congress.

"This is great -- a once in a lifetime opportunity," Jutila said. "Now, we've got to perform."

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