Childs awarded ASM Graduate Research Fellowship

Tawanna Childs, a doctoral student in the Department of Microbiology, has been awarded the American Society for Microbiology’s Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship. Childs will receive an annual stipend of up to $21,000 for three years to conduct research.

The Watkins fellowship seeks to increase the number of graduate students from underrepresented groups completing doctoral degrees in the microbiological sciences. The program is aimed at highly competitive students who are enrolled in a Ph.D. program and have completed their graduate coursework in the microbiological sciences. Fellows and their mentors are required to be members of ASM.

Childs’ research interest is identifying an efficient method for delivering a potential vaccine to fight chlamydia infections that are the leading cause of preventable blindness and the number one sexually transmitted bacterial pathogen in the world today, affecting an estimated 90 million new people each year. While disease may be successfully treated with antibiotics, 80 percent of all chlamydial infections are asymptomatic and re-infections are common. With the growing increase in both prevalence and pathology associated with chlamydial diseases, the need for an efficient, reliable vaccine has become urgent, Childs’ advisor, Wilmore Webley points out.

Childs’ techniques involve using halobacteria, which produce football-shaped gas vesicles that can offer a nontoxic, micro-particulate delivery platform for chlamydial antigens. Using genetic manipulation, Childs will produce and propagate transformed vesicles displaying chlamydial proteins, which can induce both B and T cell immune responses in mucosal tissues. She will test these methods in a mouse model to confirm protein expression and specificity, and finally use the technique to immunize mice and determine whether these methods protect against Chlamydia infection.

A vaccine developed in this way, if given at childhood or adolescence, might avert primary infection, the microbiologists note. If given after a primary infection and antibiotic treatment, an effective vaccine may modify the course of disease, prevent chronic effect and help to protect against re-infection.

Fellows must present at the ASM general meeting if their abstract is accepted and attend the ASM Kadner Institute or the ASM Scientific Writing and Publishing Institute one time during the three-year tenure of the fellowship.

This year, 51 applications were received and six were awarded. Of the six awardees, five students were from doctoral/research universities-extensive institutions, and one student was from a specialized institution—medical schools and medical centers. Among the six awardees, four additional students were recognized as Honorable Mentions.

The American Society for Microbiology, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest and largest single biological membership organization, with more than 40,000 members worldwide.

More Information

American Society for Microbiology

September 16, 2009.

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