November 28, 2000
Contact: Christian Clarke Casarez
Public Information Officer, University Communications
915/747-5526
From using snake venom toxins to cut off the blood supply in tumors to safeguarding the region's water supply, scientists at the Border Biomedical Research Center explore infectious diseases, environmental health and neurological disorders.
Through the BBRC - funded by more than $7 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health - UTEP investigators conduct nationally recognized, state-of-the-art research that has special relevance to the border region and its Hispanic-majority population.
"Border populations have traditionally been ignored by basic biomedical scientists at other institutions," says Eppie Rael, chair of the biology department and BBRC program director. "UTEP's research is important because it targets some of the most prevalent diseases in our region - many of which have implications in other border settings throughout the world."
Countering Contaminants
Researchers wade boot deep into a murky river to collect samples of bacteria lurking beneath the water surface. Although microscopic, these bacteria are the genesis of some of the most prevalent health conditions in the region.
Todd Primm, a pathogenic microbiologist, focuses his BBRC research on mycobacteria, one species of which causes tuberculosis. However, his research concentrates on a non- tubercular strain of the bacteria.
"These bacteria contaminate water and they're hard to get rid of," Primm says. "People get exposed to them, and if someone has a compromised immune system - for example, they are HIV-positive or they're recovering from some illness in a hospital - the mycobacterium will make them ill."
Primm says that unlike other bacteria that can make people sick, mycobacteria is unusually hardy. Chlorine usually kills things in water such as E. coli, a bacteria that has caused deaths in some people who have eaten contaminated hamburger meat. But it takes 50 to 100 times more chlorine to kill mycobacteria than it does Ecoli, he says.
Primm is particularly interested in studying how the bacteria survive and how they cause disease. His ultimate goal is to develop new therapies for the nontuberculosis strain of mycobacteria and new ways to protect our water systems.
"That's a tough order," Primm, formerly a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, says.
Safeguarding the Streams
Siddartha Das, associate professor of biology, is finding new ways to protect people against Giardia lamblia, a protozoan commonly found in streams and lakes. Hikers who drink from a giardia- laden stream are vulnerable to severe vomiting and diarrhea.
The current treatment for the illness is a drug called Flagyll, but it does not specifically treat Giardia, Das says, adding that antiprotozoal drugs have potentially toxic side effects.
His work is aimed at looking at how Giardia uses lipids or fatty substances, which are important for the energy production and membrane syntheses of the protozoan.
Das explains that the protozoan parasite colonizes in the human small intestine and is incapable of synthesizing its own lipids and cholesterol.
"Giardia adapts to use fatty materials from the small intestine and makes its own lipids from the host environment," he says.
Das's theory is that by inhibiting the ability of Giardia to remodel lipids, he can neutralize them. Through the center, he also researches the role of fatty acids in causing colon cancer, which is common in minority populations.
Triggering Treatments
Kristine Garza is on a mission. The immunology researcher is working to unlock the secrets of the human immune system and discover new ways to fight a killer - diabetes. Garza's research, which focuses on what turns the immune system on and off, has far-reaching implications.
She not only researches treatments for diabetes, a prevalent disease among El Paso's Hispanic population, but also searches for means to prevent autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis. She also explores ways to use the immune system to fight off cancer.
"The purpose of the immune system is to protect us from pathogens," Garza says. "In some cases, however, the immune system attacks your own body to cause autoimmune disease. In other cases, like in cancer, the immune system won't attack at all. If we can find what are the regulatory mechanisms of immunity, we could much better manipulate the immune system to prevent and cure many diseases."
Using genetically altered mice, Garza has developed an experimental model for diabetes, defining potential triggers that may lead to new therapies.
"Autoimmune diabetes occurs when T cells, the antigen- specific arm of the immune system, attack insulin-producing cells of the pancreas," she says. "Our model is set up so we know what T cells are attacking and what the target is. This way, we can focus on what triggers the T cells to attack."
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