By Matthew Zegarek
Staff Writer
Multiple laboratories on Busch campus are searching for antidotes to some of the most deadly chemical weapons used by terrorists and military forces.
A National Institutes of Health $19.2 million grant awarded to researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Rutgers University will support the formation of a Center of Excellence to perform the research.
Jeffrey Laskin, professor of the Environmental and Community Medicine department at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, chairs the Center of Excellence. "This is a dynamic center which collaborates with both professors and students," Laskin said.
Faculty involved in the project span UMDNJ, the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and one professor of Lehigh University.
The chemical weapons the Center focuses on "have the potential to be used in a terrorist incident," Laskin said.
The federal government reported the nation could be attacked with chemical agents, such as toxic substances released on a subway or on a bus, according to Laskin.
In Japan, a terrorist cult released neurotoxic substances in a subway 10 years ago. The attack killed six and sickened thousands. Laskin said the attack illustrated that anyone can do this.
One chemical weapon the Center is focusing on is sulfur mustard, which Laskin said was used in World War I by the Germans as a battlefield weapon. More recently, Iraqi forces utilized sulfur mustard during the Iran-Iraq War and also against the Kurds.
Sulfur mustard causes skin, eyes and lungs to burn and blister. It is also easily mobilized and is relatively easy to produce.
"Some of these chemicals are relatively easy to purchase; some chemicals are even used for cleaning and can be bought at the supermarket," Laskin said.
Though chemical weapons pose a threat on the welfare of the world's civilians, Laskin said the question of what drugs doctors should use on victims still remains. Some drugs exist now, but Laskin insists medical professionals need a more comprehensive array of antidotes to combat these chemical weapons effectively.
Research on antidotes for chemical weapons has made some major advances, but the success of already developed antidotes heavily depends on exposure time and where the exposure is located in the body. "The military has already invested large amounts of money into this question," Laskin said.
The researchers at UMDNJ, Rutgers, and Lehigh universities work on synthesizing the antidotes. Patrick Sinko, a professor of the Department of Pharmaceutics at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy works to formulate the new drugs.
"Much of the work is done through modeling in virtual space," Laskin said.
However, the new drugs cannot be tested on campus because the federal government controls the chemicals the drugs are designed to combat. Once the new drugs are formulated, they are shipped for testing to outside facilities, such as the Army's Institute for Chemical Defense in Maryland or Patel Labs in Columbus, Ohio. Once the outside facilities perform tests on the formulated drugs, data is sent back to Rutgers where the researchers can perfect the drugs.
There is also an academic component to the grant. "We have seminars on campus for the academic community and medical personnel [such as EMTs] to talk about these issues and what's currently available to them." he said.
Laskin said, "This is a very big project because it would be a terrible thing to have an attack, especially in our area."
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