UCLA-led team receives $2 million grant for research on Bundibugyo virus

A research team studying the fast-moving Bundibugyo virus has received a $2 million grant to examine whether vaccinations for the Ebola virus may also help prevent the related Bundibugyo virus, which has claimed at least 2,100 lives in the past several weeks.

The 12-month-long study, funded by Oslo, Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), will be led by a UCLA Fielding School of Public Health team along with collaborators including the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the University of Manitoba and Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory, the University of Texas Medical Branch and Columbia University.

"When an outbreak is moving this quickly, we cannot afford to start from zero," said Anne Rimoin, UCLA Fielding's associate dean of global health and a professor in the department of epidemiology. "Through more than two decades of collaboration, UCLA and INRB have built longitudinal cohorts and laboratory expertise that we can draw on now, together with our scientific partners, to rapidly generate rigorous evidence to inform vaccine evaluation."

Rimoin, the Gordon-Levin Professor of Infectious Diseases and Public Health and director of the UCLA Center for Global Health Security, has worked on infectious disease research and prevention projects across Africa since early in the century.

"This work also builds on longstanding scientific partnerships and infrastructure that will help us respond more effectively to this and future Ebola outbreaks," Rimoin said.

That level of experience was a major element in CEPI's decision to fund the vaccine antibody response study, one of four projects funded in response to the current outbreak, officials said.

The study will draw on long-running cohorts of people who received either of the licensed or previously licensed Zaire ebolavirus vaccines. Researchers will analyze approximately 800 serum and plasma samples from more than 1,700 participants to evaluate whether the vaccines trigger protective antibody responses against the Bundibugyo virus. Data from the study will help establish antibody tests against the virus and understand the durability of these immune responses. This information will support interpretations of clinical trials, assess the protective role of Bundibugyo-specific antibodies, and guide future vaccination strategies.

Read more at the UCLA Fielding website.