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DHS Fellow finds shrimp to be big key in vaccine production for use in outbreaks

 (Sept. 6, 2006)

    In protecting our population from a viral outbreak, intentional or unintentional, one DHS Fellow has found a unique answer from our oceans. PhD researcher Stacey Ernstberger (at left), a 2004 DHS Fellow, has focused her studies on speeding the delivery time of mass vaccination to combat a viral outbreak. In doing so, Stacey, and several other members of the Center for Research in Scientific Computation at North Carolina State University, have relied on the Pacific White Shrimp.

    "In theory, by using adult shrimp to produce a vaccine, we could reduce the development time from several months to just a couple weeks,” says Stacey. The typical amount of time required to create a vaccination can be around six months, drastically delaying our nation's ability to combat a public health crisis.
    "In the event of a viral outbreak, time is of the essence with regard to getting medical treatment to the population," says Stacey. "Reducing the vaccine production time is a necessity."
     Stacey will graduate from NCSU in 2008 with a PhD in computational mathematics.