International Society For Vaccines Makes Its Debut, Planning To Address Needs Of A Maturing Discipline

Planning To Address Needs Of A Maturing Discipline Author: NEERAJA SANKARAN, pp.1 Date: July 11,1994 The formation of a new scientific organization, the Gaithersburg, Md.-based International Society for Vaccines (ISV), signals that vaccinology is finally coming of age as a discrete discipline, according to Jonas Salk, the developer of the first effective vaccine for polio--whose own experience in the field spans more than a half-century. Although vaccines have been in use, in some form, for almost 200 years, formation of the new society, say its members, marks the first time that researchers with that focus have come together as a single, international organization to share their common interests. Until recently, they say, the subject was always addressed in the context of a researcher's specific field, and this included virtually every area of the basic and applied biological sciences-- immunology, virology, molecular biology, parasitology, pediatrics, and the veterinary sciences being a few examples. "What we are witnessing now is a need to develop a science of the principles underlying the phenomenon, that, in a sense, was discovered by Jenner two centuries ago," says Salk, the founding director of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. Edward Jenner was the English physician who, in the late 18th century, discovered the protective properties of the cowpox virus against smallpox and made the world's first vaccine. "We have to take into account several disciplines and apply the increasingly sophisticated techniques and knowledge of various mechanisms towards making [vaccines] better," adds Salk, who serves on ISV's executive committee. "While people have realized the importance and power of prophylaxis in combating disease, and long felt the need [to share information], until now no one had taken the initiative to start a society," says Rajesh Gupta, chief of the vaccine adjuvants and serological evaluation section of the Massachusetts Public Health Biologic Labs in Boston. Gupta, who is ISV's treasurer, says the new society's inception stemmed from informal discussions in 1992 among himself and two like-minded investigators: Raymond Spier, a biologist at the University of Surrey in England, and editor of Vaccine, a British journal; and Fred Brown, a scientist with the Plum Island Animal Disease Center of the United States Department of Agriculture in Orient, N.Y. ISV had its inaugural meeting in a satellite session during the annual American Society for Microbiology meeting that ran from May 23 to 27 this year in Las Vegas (K.Y. Kreeger, The Scientist, April 18, 1994, page 3). At the session, Spier was named secretary; Brown was appointed to the executive committee; and Jack Acuff, a biologist and owner of Gaithersburg biotechnology firm E.M. Spectrum Inc., was appointed executive director of the new society. "[The society] appeared to be a popular concept," says Peter Nara, chief of the virus biology section at the National Cancer Institute/Frederick (Md.) Cancer Research and Development Center, who was elected ISV president. "We already have over 300 members, and this is just from preliminary inquiries." ISV's major aim, according to its charter, is to establish and promote a cross-pollination among various sciences to facilitate the development and use of therapeutic and preventive vaccines in combating both infectious and noninfectious disease in humans as well as animals. Rather than having regular meetings, ISV will initially focus on setting up an online directory of its members, Nara says. In the listings, each member will be coded by identifiers for his or her particular areas of expertise. "We hope to establish a network, whereby these members can talk to each other directly," says Nara. "Once this directory is up and going, we will set up a central database into which our members can feed the information they get from attending other meetings." Such a database would provide an overview of the advances going on in the field of vaccinology, foster information sharing among groups, and help in identifying problem areas and neglected issues within the field, say the founding members. "It will be a buffer and catalyst at the same time," says Nara. "Almost every other week, at least, there is a meeting somewhere dealing with vaccines," says Gupta. "We are not trying to compete with them--instead, our database will coordinate data from all the meetings." "The society will represent a collective mind, not just a collection of minds," says Salk. Even vaccinologists who have not allied themselves with the society nonetheless say they can envision its utility. "Because vaccines are such highly regulated things, I could see the use for a [vaccinologists'] society in acting as a go-between for researchers and regulatory bodies like the Food and Drug Administration [FDA]," says Bernard Roizman, a professor of virology at the University of Chicago. And, in fact, according to Gupta, a high priority for ISV is to "form task forces in specific issues, reaching consensus opinions on them, and interacting with the FDA to bring out the scientific issues." Another immediate task will be the initiation of a journal, says executive director Acuff. "It should be another four to five months in the making," he projects. "Like the organization, the journal will be broad-based in its scope, covering veterinary as well as the human vaccines for multiple applications. We hope to cooperate with any other society whose interests pertain to ours." For more information about the fledgling society, contact: 15602 Bondy Lane, Gaithersburg, Md. 20878 Phone: (301) 253-5408 Fax: (301) 977-7789 Information regarding an E-mail address for ISV is not yet available, according to society officials.

International Society For Vaccines Makes Its Debut, Planning To Address Needs Of A Maturing Discipline

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