Infatuated with Vaccine Research
Cincinnati Children's has had a long-standing relationship with vaccine research. You might even call it an infatuation. Our commitment to vaccine research dates back to the 1950s when Albert Sabin, MD, first began his work on developing the live oral polio vaccine. Most recently, the HPV vaccine that prevents cervical cancer, which was tested and studied at Cincinnati Children's, received federal approval.
April 24, 1960: Children and their parents wait at our doors to receive the polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Albert Sabin at Cincinnati Children's.
But those are just two of many. Myriad other vaccines have been developed, tested and re-tested under the roofs at Cincinnati Children's. This issue of Research Horizons explores this steadfastness in studying vaccines.
Vaccine research really got underway when the Gamble Program for Clinical Studies came to Cincinnati Children's from Christ Hospital (then called the Gamble Institute) in 1995. Under the direction of Gilbert Schiff, MD, the Gamble Program brought important vaccine researchers to Cincinnati Children's, many of whom are still here today.
The Gamble Program works within the Division of Infectious Diseases to manage clinical trials with an emphasis on vaccines and antivirals. With trials focusing on conditions affecting everyone from infants to the elderly, the research being conducted by the Gamble Program has a potential benefit for people of all ages. For example, Cincinnati Children's is currently testing a vaccine that could protect millions against one strain of the avian flu.
Of significant note is the medical center's role as a Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, first designated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1994. With this designation, Cincinnati Children's is one of just seven US sites assigned by the NIH to test vaccines and find better treatments for infectious diseases.
In addition, investigators are studying or have studied several promising vaccines for rotavirus, norovirus, cytomegalovirus, hepatitis B, adult influenza, childhood influenza, adult pertussis and two forms of herpes simplex virus.
These Cincinnati Children's researchers are devoted to finding new ways to protect the public's health. As current Gamble Program director David Bernstein, MD, says, "We see kids here with common viral diseases every winter. Our job is to keep them out of the hospital." Vaccines can go a long way toward keeping the public healthy and keeping not only children, but also adults, out of hospitals every year. We eagerly await those vaccines that are in the early stages of development, just far-off possibilities at this point. And we look forward to hearing about those that exist as mere thoughts in a researcher's brain right now, awaiting conception.
May the infatuation continue.
