The Translational Genomics Research Institute and Northern Arizona University have been awarded a five-year, $4.5 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop new diagnostics and analytical tools for a significant biodefense disease called melioidosis.

The illness, also known as Whitmore's disease, is found mostly in tropical regions, especially in Southeast Asia, as well as northeastern Australia. The infectious disease is caused by an organism that has been considered as a potential agent for biological warfare and biological terrorism.

The research will be conducted at TGen North, the institute's pathogen genomics and biodefense research facility located in Flagstaff. Nationally recognized biosafety expert Paul Keim, director of TGen's Pathogen Genomics Division and Cowden Endowed Chair in Microbiology at NAU, will lead this research effort.

Keim's laboratory has developed one of the most comprehensive repositories for melioidosis samples in the world.

Keim's researchers will focus on developing smarter and faster diagnostic tools to give physicians more timely and accurate information on the cause of the disease, a bacterium known as Burkholderia pseudomallei, or "Burk."

"We have made great strides already with Burk and have identified genetic markers that predict the outcome of disease—essentially predicting whether a particular infection is destined to be fatal without prompt and aggressive treatment," said Keim, who is a co-principal investigator on the grant. "We need to quickly develop these markers into accurate diagnostic tools and get them into the clinics where this disease occurs."

TGen will work in collaboration with NAU and a clinical facility, the Menzies School of Health Research, located in Darwin, Australia.

The NAU portion of the research will be headed by David Wagner, an assistant professor of biological sciences and the associate director of the NAU Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics.

"This is truly a collaborative project," Wagner said. "Although melioidosis is a potential bioterrorism weapon and an important cause of disease in some parts of the world, it does not occur naturally in the United States. As a result, international collaborations are absolutely crucial to allow us to effectively study this important pathogen."

The result of this research will be a tool that accurately identifies and characterizes the pathogen in clinical samples in a matter of hours. The existing technology requires several days to analyze samples.