IDCRP Encourages Exchange of Ideas

Established by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and USU in 2005, the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program (IDCRP) is a major initiative that focuses on clinical infectious diseases of military importance. This multifaceted program encourages the exchange of scientific ideas and development of collaborative research efforts among NIAID and Defense Department investigators in military treatment facilities and DoD research labs.

The program, built around a global network of military clinical sites, leverages the Defense Department’s extensive health care and research infrastructure. The framework allows IDCRP to rapidly address novel infectious disease threats around the world as they are identified, providing an ideal platform to study new challenges.

Last year, University researchers collaborated on the establishment of a network infectious disease institutional review board, with goals of decreasing the amount of time needed to move research from bench to bedside, harmonizing research practices and strengthening communication throughout the Defense Department.

The board also facilitates high-priority military research through the program and streamlines the institutional review and approval process by enabling researchers to work with a single board for multicenter protocols. Collaborative research can now be reviewed once, freeing DoD and NIAID to emphasize multicenter studies. Previously, such studies required as many as seven separate reviews that often imposed significant delays.

The well-developed IDCRP network of physicians, coupled with the network of review boards, may be ideal for initiation of vaccine trials in military populations. Vaccines trials for Ebola and Marburg viruses and Staphylococcus aureus are already in the IDCRP approval process.

The IDCRP, headquartered within the Department of Preventative Medicine and Biometrics at USU, is a tri-service program in partnership with NIAID and HJF.

Research on Staph Bacteria

The IDCRP is involved in several studies that directly affect returning troops, including a focus on staphylococcal bacteria.

In one such study at the Marine Base Quantico, program researchers examined methods to decrease the risk of infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, including methicillin-resistant strains, a major concern in Officer Candidate Schools. Preliminary data indicated topical decontaminants, shown effective in hospital settings and used in this study, were ineffective in field conditions. Researchers are developing alternative strategies and protocols that will be used for treatment in many other Marine Corps training settings.

Program scientists also are participating in a cooperative research and development agreement to produce a vaccine against life-threatening staph infections. Together with Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, researchers are working to develop a licensed pentavalent Staphylococcus aureus vaccine to prevent skin and soft-tissue infection.

These bacteria remain a common cause of skin and soft-tissue infections in troops during military deployment, as well as a common cause of wound infections in injured troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. These infections adversely affect many active-duty servicemembers, in addition to the well being of U.S. citizens.