ANTIVIRAL
R E S E A R C H
|
Institute for
ANTIVIRAL R E S E A R C H |
Companies are asked to pay 50% of the cost of an experiment or series of
negotiated experiments prior to initiation of the study; the remainder would
be due upon receipt of a complete report on those experiments.
Senior researchers of the Institute have aided in the development of five drugs currently approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of human viral diseases. These drugs include Vira-A™, used for treating herpes virus infections, Virazole™, approved for therapy of respiratory syncytial virus infections of infants and young children, Cytovene™, recommended for treating severe cytomegalovirus infections, Zerit™, used as a therapy for AIDS, and Tamiflu™, approved for therapy of influenza. The researchers who make up the IAR are the following, with their general fields of expertise indicated:
Brief biographies of the above researchers follow. The total scientific publications resulting to date from this research group number over 400.
Assisting these individuals is a team of technicians, most of whom have B. S. or M. S. degrees in microbiology, immunology or virology and often specialized training in certain jobs, such as operation of rodent neurosurgery immunohisto-chemistry, special techniques of animal handling, biochemical assays, etc. Also assisting is a data analyst and computer use expert.
The following chart gives an overview of the personnel in the IAR and their current organization.
John D. Morrey, Ph.D.
Program Director
Dr.
John D. Morrey: Dr. Morrey, Director of the Institute, received
a Ph.D. in virology at Utah State University in 1983. From 1984 until
1987, he was a Staff Fellow in the Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases,
at the NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratories (Hamilton, MT). In this position,
he worked on retroviruses that led to future AIDS research. Also during
the period of 1981-1984, he founded and ran Physician Services, a clinical
diagnostic laboratory. Dr. Morrey joined the Institute for Antiviral
Research at Utah State University in 1987, and currently is Research Professor
in the Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences and the Biotechnology
Center. He has been the PI on four NIH grants and contracts involving
NF-kB transcription factor, bioproduction of proteins in transgenic animals,
embryonic stems cells, and transgenic mice expressing hepatitis B virus. He
also collaborates with Institute investigators on drug discovery for West
Nile virus, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies and hepatitis B and
C viruses. He teaches "Molecular Cloning" and "Ethics of Biotechnology",
from which a book has been authored by Drs. Morrey and Richard Sherlock (Language
and Philosophy Department) on this subject (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing
Group, 2002). He has recently been instrumental in the establishment at this
university of a transgenic mouse colony expressing hepatitis B virus in the
serum and liver, and performing chemotherapy studies to further characterize
the utility of this model, has established a transgenic mouse colony for studying
inhibitors of prion disease, and has recently developed animal models for
study of West Nile virus inhibitors. Dr. Morrey has over 70 scientific papers,
primarily in the area of pathogenesis and therapy of murine models of AIDS,
hepatitis B and West Nile virus infections. He is Head of the Transgenic Animals
Section of the Institute for Antiviral Research.
Dr. Thomas J. Baldwin: Dr. Baldwin received his DVM in 1988 from Washington State University, and his Ph. D. in veterinary pathology from Louisiana State University in 1992. In 1994 he was named a Diplomate in Veterinary Pathology by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences at Utah State University and is Director of the Utah State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory located in Logan, Utah. Prior to coming to Utah State University, Dr. Baldwin was on the faculty at Washington State University. His work has focused on development and evaluation of immunological and polymerase chain reaction assays for diagnostic purposes.
Dr. Dale
L. Barnard: Dr. Barnard received his Ph.D. in microbiology/biochemistry
in 1987 from Brigham Young University. He completed a one-year post-doctorate
in the Antiviral Program of Utah State University, after which he was appointed
Research Associate Professor in the Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary
Sciences at USU. He is Head of the Biochemical Mechanisms and Veterinary
Virology Sections of the Institute. Dr. Barnardís research interests are
in the elucidation of the biochemical cytotoxicity and mechanisms of antiviral
action of new antiviral agents. A major thrust of his research is to pinpoint
a viral enzyme which could be used as a target for developing selective and
specific antiviral drugs. He has been instrumental in studying methods
by which mink aleutian virus disease can be treated. He has 42 scientific
papers published or submitted for publication.
Dr.
Thomas D. Bunch: Dr. Bunch received a Ph.D. degree in cytogenetics
and toxicology from Utah State University in 1971. He then completed a
post-doctorate in reproductive physiology at the same university, and was appointed
Research Professor in the Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences
in 1973, being later promoted to Associate Professor in 1982 and to Professor
in 1990. Dr. Bunch received special training in embryo transfer from the
University of Sydney, Australia, in 1975; in biochemical genetics of livestock
from Jouey en Joses, France, in 1977; in molecular genetics at the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, University of Utah, in 1988; and also in 1988 was trained
in transgenic animal technology at the National Institutes of Health.
It was following this latter training that he joined the Institute for Antiviral
Research, working with Drs. Sidwell, Morrey, and Jackson on transgenic research
as part of their Division of AIDS research contract. He has authored approximately
100 scientific publications and is consultant to several agencies.
Dr.
Joseph K. K. Li: Dr. Li received a Ph.D. in microbiology from UCLA
in 1975, then served a postdoctoral with Dr. W. K. Joklik at the Duke University
Medical Center. He was Manager of the Department of Immunology and Molecular
Virology at the Becton Dickinson Research Center for 2 years before taking a
faculty position at the University of North Carolina, where he became a Research
Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. In 1984, he became
a member of the faculty in the Department of Biology at Utah State University,
where he is presently a Professor in that department and also Associate Director
of the universityís Biotechnology Center. Dr. Li has received numerous
honors and recognitions, including receiving the Distinguished Service Award
from the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America (SCBA), being elected Executive
Secretary of the SCBA, being designated a Honorary Visiting Professor at the
Institute of Virology and Institute of Preventive Medicine of the Chinese Academy
of Science, Honorary Professor of Wuhan Institute of Virology of Academia Sinica,
and Honorary Professor and Academic Advisor of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology
and Biotechnology of the Institute of Microbiology in the Chinese Academy of
Sciences (Beijing). Dr. Li is a member of the Editorial Board for the
Asia-Pacific Journal of Molecular Biology and Virologica Sinica
and is an ad hoc reviewer on numerous other journals. Dr. Liís expertise
is in the application of molecular and biochemical techniques to study the structure
and functions of viral components, viral assembly, and genetic relatedness,
focusing especially on Epstein Barr virus, reovirus, rotavirus, and bluetongue
virus. One focus of his research has been the development of subunit viral
vaccines. Dr. Li is the author of over 60 scientific publications.
He is Head of this Instituteís Vaccine Development Section and is co-Head of
this Instituteís Biochemical Mechanisms Section.
Dr.
Donald F. Smee: Dr. Smee received his Ph.D. in viral chemotherapy
at Utah State University in 1981. He then served as Staff Scientist for
Syntex Research, Inc. (Mountain View, CA) from 1981 to 1985. In this position,
he was instrumental in the discovery and development of ganciclovir (Cytovene™),
a drug now used in the treatment of cytomegalovirus. He was appointed
Virology Department Head of the Nucleic Acid Research Institute of ICN Pharmaceuticals
(Costa Mesa, CA) in 1985, where he worked in discovery and development of antivirals
until 1989. A major discovery reported by Dr. Smee in this position was
the substance 7-thia-8-oxoguanosine, an antiviral drug with immune stimulating
properties. He joined the Antiviral Program at USU in 1989 where he is
currently a Research Professor in the Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary
Sciences and Head of the In Vitro and In Vivo Antiviral Studies
Sections of the Institute for Antiviral Research. Recent accomplishments
have been the development of animal models using immune compromised mice for
studying the effects of drugs on cytomegalovirus infections, and the development
and characteriation of a series of drug-resistant murine cytomegaloviruses.
He has recently completed a 3-year study at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute
for Infectious Diseases as a Visiting Scientist, where he performed poxvirus
research, and has established several important poxvirus animal models at this
institution. Dr. Smee is an author on over 110 scientific papers.
Dr. Anthony R. Torres: Dr. Torres received an M.D. degree in Associate in biochemistry at the National Institutes of Health. He was a medical resident in Laboratory Medicine at Yale University from 1981-83, then served as Assistant Professor at Yale until 1986. He was a Senior Scientist at HyClone Laboratories from 1986 until 1993, then established Nutri-Pro, Inc. to develop hepatic disease diagnosis programs. In addition to continuing to direct the Nutri-Pro program, he is serving as a Senior Research Scientist in the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University, where he is responsible for the services performed by the Immunology Laboratory there. Dr. Torres is author or co-author of 34 publications, the majority being on immunology studies as well as biochemical evaluative systems, and is Head of this Institute's Immunology Studies section.
Email: JohnMor@cc.usu.edu
Updated March 31, 2007
Key words:
Antiviral Virus Influenza RSV Respiratory Syncytial
Virus Poxvirus Rhinovirus West Nile Virus Venezuelan Equine
Encephalitis Virus Yellow Fever Virus Punta Toro Virus Pichinde
Virus Biohazard Level 3 Laboratory Transgenic Animal Model
Ribavirin Virazole Ganciclovir Acyclovir Aciclovir
Oseltamivir TamiFlu Stavudine Zerit Bioterrorism
Virus Biodefense Vaccine Vaccinations Veterinary Immunology
Immunological Immunomodulators Immunmodulators West Nile viral encephalitis