Dr. Zhen Fang Fu, a rabies researcher in the College of Veterinary Medicine, will collaborate with several institutions to test a curative vaccine for Rabies Virus, or RV, that could be administered late in the disease process.
Fu’s work is funded by a $1.4 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
“More than 10 million people are bitten by a rabid or suspected rabid animal each year and require post-exposure treatment,” Fu said. “People who have been bitten must seek post-exposure treatment immediately, because there is no cure nor any interventional therapies for rabies once clinical symptoms of the disease are present.”
The total NIH award is $4,850,126 over five years. It will be shared with UGA, the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research and Thomas Jefferson University.