For three decades, Dr. John Prescott, University of Guelph Professor and Chair of the OVC Department of Pathobiology, has been unwavering in his quest to find a vaccine able to combat the deadly Rhodococcus bacterium that causes pneumonia in foals and can hide inside a young foal undetected for months.
Determining how pathogen R. equi works
Now that the R. equi genome has been mapped, the work to develop a vaccine is moving forward.
Once the airborne organism Rhodococcus (R. equi) leaves soil and manure and travels into the lungs of a young foal, it hides in the white blood cells that normally seek out and destroy invading bacteria. Now that the R. equi genome has been mapped, the work to develop a vaccine is moving forward.
Dr. Prescott and his team are collaborating internationally to tackle this global disease. Prescott’s former MSc student, Iain MacArthur, is also committed to seeing this epic journey through and works closely with Prescott online using Skype. MacArthur is currently working on his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh and runs tests using micro-arrays.
This entails printing every Rhodococcus gene onto a slide and looking at their expressions under different conditions. MacArthur explains the advantages of having the blueprint for the R.-equi genome:“instead of hunting around a cave with a tiny flashlight ? we can now switch the lights on, view all contents and see how the genetic material relates.”
“This level of understanding would have been considered almost science fiction just a few years ago – It is incredible what we can do with this new genomic technology,” exclaims Prescott. The advances in research, since 2003 when the human genome project mapped out all the sequence of DNA in the body have been truly incredible.
When looking at all 5,000 genes in the R. equi sequence they are now able to assign a function to each – a task which simply was not possible before mapping the R. equi genome. The level of understanding has been increased exponentially due to advances allowing researchers to look at the whole genomic picture. Prescott explains, “It’s a very complex process, although it gets easier as more and more people work in the area of genomics.” The high beams are on and researchersare able see all the genes that are switched on – the complete blueprint.
Researchers now know what makes this organism a pathogen, what it needs to live and how it works. Prescott and MacArthur are isolating and targeting the most switched on and linked genes to develop a weakened form of the live virulent which could then be orally administered as a vaccine.
Information for this news article is taken from Equine Guelph newsletter, University of Guelph.