This is the official web site of the NIH-NIAID funded project to apply the strategy of reverse vaccinology to develop potential vaccinogens for the protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum. . This project, launched in September, 2003, is under direction of Dr. Gregory A. Buck at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Drs. Ping Xu, L. Shozo Ozaki, J. Marcelo Alves, Patricio Manque, Myrna Serrano, and Fernando Tenjo are VCU co-investigators. The VCU team is collaborating in this project with Drs. Richard Guerrant, Oluma Bushen, Raul Destura, and James Roche at the University of Virginia. This project is part of the Mid Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The availability of the complete genomic sequence of C. hominis and the closely related C. parvum presents the possibility of using informatics tools in attempts to identify potential vaccinogens in silico. Having sequenced the C. hominis genome, we are in the unique position to use this new approach to move toward development of such a prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine. In this web site, we describe our efforts and progress toward identifying such a vaccine. (Background on Cryptosporidium)

                                                         

Rationale for Vaccine Development-->