Director of URI Institute for Immunology and Research developing new vaccines

11/13/09 - Developing new vaccinations, facing scientific challenges and helping to make a positive difference in the lives of the sick are three of Dr. Annie S. De Groot's favorite aspects of her job.De Groot, the Director of the University of Rhode Island's Institute for Immunology and Informatics and co-founder of EpiVax Inc., has been busy developing new vaccines that can be commercializable on a worldwide market scale.

"We are creating new ideas and testing them before we move them to the next stage of research," De Groot said.

EpiVax is a company based in Providence, R.I. that produces HIV and Tuberculosis vaccines on a worldwide-scale production.

One of the most promising efforts the company is currently working on is a molecule called Tregitope. Research on the molecule has shown that it has the potential to decrease the potency of immune responses that are triggered by allergies. For example, Tregitope may reduce the effect of "juvenile" diabetes, De Groot said.

"We're really excited about this therapy and think it may be our best contribution to medical science yet," De Groot said.

She said that although the development and production of a vaccine usually takes 20 years, she and her team of researchers have already been working on some treatments for about 10 years.

De Groot said that she hopes the rate of the discovery of vaccines will increase due to the development of new scientific instruments and methods.

ASATI, Antigen-Specific Adaptive Tolerance Induction, is another one of EpiVax's therapies that is expected to provide great benefits to the global health community. According to De Groot, this therapy may be useful for treating medical conditions including diabetes, asthma and even organ transplantation.

"We're creative thinkers so we're quite successful at developing new concepts that are potentially safer and more effective than other vaccines and therapies that are already in use," De Groot said.

She said that in commercial companies, the research pertaining to vaccine development is categorized into three areas of research. These areas include discovering treatments, animal testing and human testing. The field that EpiVax focuses on is specifically the search for new medications.

"Medical research is a lot like art- especially the 'discovery side,'" De Groot said. "It's an outlet for creative nerds like me."

De Groot, who was inspired to go into medicine because of her desire to help others, also has many other side projects.

"I went into medicine to help people and found out that it was also a lot of fun," De Groot said.

Along with her business partner, Bill Martin, she is also working in conjunction with the United States' Department of Defense to create vaccines for Smallpox and Tularemia.