OSU Gets NIH Grant For Bioterrorism Research

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma State University receives a $2.9-million from the National Institutes of Health to further its efforts in bioterrorism research.<br/><br/>OSU researchers are screening drugs

Thursday, September 21st 2006, 6:20 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma State University receives a $2.9-million from the National Institutes of Health to further its efforts in bioterrorism research.

OSU researchers are screening drugs that could be used to combat bioterrorism and emerging infectious disease agents. OSU's veterinary center is one of five institutes involved in an in-vitro screening project.

Professor William Barrow says the funding will allow the school to shift from concentrating mostly on testing potential bioterrorism agents to the emerging infectious diseases arena.

Doing so will determine which compounds are effective against drug resistant strains of staphylococci, enterococci and others.

Barrow says the tests will help pharmaceutical companies focus on what new drugs must be developed to protect humans from these diseases.