September 11, 2003

Campus Pauses To Remember Significance of Sept. 11

The second anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was marked at UNL with several memorials created by students in the Hyde Chair Studio architecture class, led by Hyde Chair Professor Julian Bonder. Students traced out the actual size of the World Trade Center towers in yellow caution tape in the green spaces near Love Library, Andrews and Burnett halls and north of Canfield Administration Building.

Above: The architecture students also wrapped the tape around the Greenpoint sculpture. Mirrors placed between the sculpture and Mueller Tower reflected the tower to create a representation of twin towers.

Below: Students, faculty and staff line up in the rain along the tape during a moment of silence led by a tone chimed on the Mueller Tower carillon at 10:50 a.m.

Photos by Tom Slocum and Bob Crisler.

UNL's part of a research team to develop a vaccine against botulinum will be directed by chemical engineering Professor Michael Meagher, above, and will take place in UNL's Biological Process Development Facility. UNL will receive $6.5 million of the grant for its work in developing fermentation and purification processes for the botulinum vaccines. Photo by Alan Jackson/Jackson Studios.

UNL earns part of $11 million grant

Work to develop botulinum vaccine

UNL is a major partner in an $11 million grant for the fast-track development of a vaccine against botulinum neurotoxin, one of the most lethal potential bioterrorism agents.

UNL is part of a research team led by DynPort Vaccine Co. that also includes the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and HTD Biosystems Inc. UNL's Biological Process Development Facility, directed by chemical engineering Professor Michael Meagher, will receive $6.5 million of the grant for its work in developing fermentation and purification processes for the botulinum vaccines. This grant is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"This is an exciting project where UNL research is helping to meet the nation's urgent need for a safe, effective vaccine against a potentially deadly bioweapon," said Prem Paul, UNL vice chancellor for research and dean of graduate studies.

Botulinum neurotoxin is generally recognized as the most deadly toxin known and has been converted for use as a weapon of bioterrorism. Under the grant, the team will develop within five years the manufacturing processes for a safe and effective vaccine that will protect against all known forms of botulinum neurotoxin. These processes will then be available for transition into pilot lot manufacture of the vaccine before Phase I clinical testing.

"Developing a botulinum vaccine has been difficult and complicated because botulinum neurotoxin exists as seven different serotypes - A, B, C, D, E, F and G - and each requires a separate vaccine," Meagher said. The project will fast-track manufacturing process development for a vaccine in one to two years that will provide protection against serotypes A, B, C, E and F, and within five years for a vaccine that will also include protection against botulinum neurotoxin serotypes D and G - a heptavalent vaccine.

"UNL's Biological Process Development Facility is one of the few university facilities in the U.S. with the expertise to develop manufacturing processes for recombinant vaccine and therapeutic candidates suitable for the production of proteins for clinical trials," Meagher said.

DynPort Vaccine Co. of Frederick, Md., is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and licensure of safe and efficacious biodefense vaccines. Ian Henderson of DVC is the principal investigator on the grant and will lead the research efforts. DVC is also providing management and coordination of scientific subcontractors. The Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases owns the intellectual property pertaining to the vaccine to be produced and has filed patent applications.

HTD Biosystems of Hercules, Calif., is a pharmaceutical biotechnology company that uses novel processes and approaches to accelerate drug development with specific expertise in formulation and drug delivery systems. It will be responsible for the characterization and development of stable formulations of the vaccines, performed in partnership with the University of Colorado Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.

The grant is made through a new program of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a component of the National Institutes of Health that emphasizes partnerships between universities, government and the private sector to speed development of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other products needed for biodefense. Since the fall of 2001, NIAID has accelerated its biodefense research program, launching more than 30 new research and construction initiatives. It has created a comprehensive strategic plan and detailed research agenda for Category A agents of bioterrorism - those considered to be the worst bioterror threats by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Category A agents include smallpox, anthrax, plague, botulism and viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.

UNL progresses toward '2020 Vision'

Last year was undeniably a challenging period for UNL, especially on the budget front, but UNL nevertheless continued to show signs of improving quality.

That was the central finding of "Indicators of Institutional Quality: Annual Report 2003," the university's second annual "report card" on meeting the goals set forth three years ago in "A 2020 Vision: The Future of Research and Graduate Education at UNL." A faculty-produced report, "A 2020 Vision" called for UNL to become "one of the premier public research universities in the United States" by the time the university celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2019.

"Like last year's report, this report paints a picture of a university with some strengths and some weaknesses, but what is most striking is the substantial evidence of continuing improvement in quality and achievement," Richard Edwards, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Rebecca Carr, research analyst in the Office of Academic Affairs, wrote in summarizing the report card.

As examples of improvement in the quality of undergraduate education, Edwards and Carr cited continued increases in the university's six-year graduation rate and freshman-to-sophomore retention rate; a slight increase in students of color as a proportion of the undergraduate student population; the number of high-prestige, nationally competitive awards won by UNL students; and the increase in the number of individuals participating in distance-education programs.

"In addition, our faculty conducted research using the highest level of federal grant support in UNL's history, with expenditures of federal research dollars growing by 17 percent in fiscal year 2001-02 (the latest data available) and 36 percent over two years," Edwards and Carr wrote. "Moreover, we know that this funding will continue to increase because the faculty was extremely successful in gaining new awards of federal research dollars."

Here are some of the highlights of "Indicators of Institutional Quality: Annual Report 2003":

• The six-year graduation rate continued its steady increase of the past few years, climbing another percentage point to 54.3 percent, compared to the university's prior plateau of about 47 percent.
• The gap in six-year graduation rates between UNL and the average of its peer institutions was reduced to 9.2 percent in the fall of 2002, compared to 15.8 percent four years earlier, a reduction of two-fifths. Similar gains were achieved in the freshman-to-sophomore retention rate, and UNL is now within 3 percent of the average of its peers.
• Approximately one-third of 2,766 responding graduating seniors said they had participated in a "meaningful" research or creative activity in conjunction with a faculty member, underscoring the importance of programs such as the Undergraduate Creative Activity and Research Experiences program.
• The number of citations in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals of articles written by UNL faculty increased by 17 percent to 20,020 in the five-year period that ended in 2001-02, compared to 17,082 in the five-year period that ended in 1996-97.
• Federal research expenditures at UNL grew by 36 percent from fiscal year 2000 through fiscal year 2002, the last year for which full data are available.
• UNL researchers in fiscal year 2003 attracted nine federal awards of at least $1 million, including three of more than $5 million.
• Total sponsored dollars awarded to UNL faculty increased 55 percent between fiscal year 2000 and fiscal year 2003 to a total of $142.5 million in grants and contracts.
• Participation in non-residential educational programs for credit more than doubled from 712 in 1998-99 to 1,477 in 2000-01 and more than tripled to 2,331 in 2001-02, due in large part to the increase in the number of distance courses offered.
• The percentage of faculty who are either female or people of color has grown to 34.5 percent in the fall of 2002 from 29.7 percent in the fall of 1996, reflecting increases in both female faculty (to 25.4 percent from 23.1 percent) and faculty of color (to 12.9 percent from 8.2 percent).
• UNL increased its share of students recruited from the top 10 percent of Nebraska high school classes to 30.7 percent in the fall of 2002 from 28.7 percent in the fall of 1999.

"It's important to remember that this report is just a snapshot of the university and the measures in the report are only indicators of quality and progress toward our goals," Edwards said. "It is not an exhaustive list of accomplishments by faculty and students in the last year, nor could it fully capture the range and depth of the university's achievements. Nonetheless, the contents of the report are gratifying in most respects, especially under the circumstances, and they are an encouraging sign that the ambitious goals of 'A 2020 Vision' can be met."