Cadet teams with Kansas State University to try to create Swine Flu vaccine

  • Published
  • By Amy Gillentine
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Office of Research
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  Few people get the chance to clone genes during their summer holiday - and fewer still are able to help make a new vaccine.

For Cadet 1st Class John Rosenberg and Lt. Col. Craig Narasaki, a six-week summer research program was an unforgettable dive into genetic engineering to battle African Swine Flu, a virus that hasn't made its way across Atlantic, but is decimating the pork industry in Europe.

"It was the first time we sent a faculty and cadet team to a location," said Narasaki. "And it was a really cool opportunity, a chance to connect the Department of Defense with the Department of Homeland Security, using educational Centers of Excellence and the service academies to create cutting-edge research."

The Department of Homeland Security paid for the summer research projects through the Academy's Center of Innovation. The goal is to develop deeper relationships between the three service academies and the 18 DHS Centers of Excellence at universities around the nation, said Lt. Col. Greg Bennett, deputy director of the Center of Innovation.

"These Centers of Excellence do a lot of research, a lot of what we call technology foraging," Bennett said. "An example is the CREATE program, which researches the economic impact of terrorism. Basically, they cover sectors DHS is concerned about."

The African Swine Flu virus is one of those areas of concerns as its killing thousands of pigs in Europe. While the virus doesn't crossover to infect humans, it could seriously derail an entire industry if it arrives in the U.S.

"That's millions of dollars," Narasaki said. "And so we went to Kansas State University to work on a vaccine for the virus."

While a marketable vaccine is still years away, Narasaki said the two Academy researchers were able to move the research forward.

"We were on the vaccine development team, and so we cloned genes to examine which protein structure would elicit an immune response," Narasaki said. "Basically, we did genetic engineering over the course of the summer."

The two took the cloned virus and put it in a virus that only affects insects. Then, they took the proteins from the insects to make the vaccination.

"It's one of the ways to do it," Rosenberg said. "There are other ways, but the virus has 100 percent morbidity, so if it mutated, a different type of vaccination could be useless. Using the proteins makes it safer, but it takes longer and it's harder to do."

The research is still in its infancy, Narasaki said.

"It's only just begun - it's the very beginning of answering the very first questions," he said. "The U.S. just starting getting serious about the vaccine a few years ago."

Narasaki chose Rosenberg to go to Kansas State with him based on both a personal interview with him, but also by looking at his academic and leadership record at the Academy.

"I can't say enough good things about John," he said. "His GPA is very high; every single teacher wrote glowing remarks about him. I'm certain he'll get into medical school."

Rosenberg said working with people from other countries made for an enjoyable experience.

"A lot of people in the laboratory were from other countries," he said. "So that was very different. The person mentoring me was from China. It was a great chance to reach out and learn about other places."

Rosenberg said he was thrilled with the experience, not only the chance to do cutting-edge research in one of the finest labs in the nation but also to take advantage of an opportunity to break stereotypes about U.S. service members.

"One thing I learned was to be approachable," he said in a video about his research experience. "We gave a presentation about the Air Force Academy and someone in the lab told us not to wear our military uniforms (because) we would scare and intimidate people. I said, 'That's exactly why we have to wear it. We should be approachable - we are here to serve them.'"