@article{Macom_Horzempa_2017, title={RHIANNON MACOM AND JOSEPH HORZEMPA, Dept of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, West Liberty University, West Liberty, WV 26074. Anti-Bioterror Vaccine: Utilization of Francisella tularensis LVS to Generate a Plague/ Tularemia Vaccine}, volume={89}, url={https://pwvas.org/index.php/pwvas/article/view/213}, DOI={10.55632/pwvas.v89i1.213}, abstractNote={<p><em>Francisella tularensis </em>and <em>Yersinia pestis </em>are bacteria that are classified as potential bioterrorism agents by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  A vaccine that is capable of producing protective immunity against multiple bioterror agents would be especially desirable.  Therefore, the goal of this research is to create a vaccine that will produce immunity to both <em>F. tularensis </em>and <em>Y. pestis</em>.  We are generating a construct in which the coding region for Tul4 (an immunodominant protein of <em>F. tularensis</em>) is linked to OmpA (a protective antigen of <em>Y. pestis</em>) under the control of a robust <em>F. tularensis </em>promoter.  This construct will be expressed in <em>F. tularensis </em>Live Vaccine Strain.  Patients who have been immunized with this strain show robust immunological memory (over three decades post-vaccination).  After confirming expression of the chimeric Tul4-OmpA protein, mice will be immunized with the recombinant LVS strain and then subsequently challenged with both <em>F. tularensis </em>and <em>Y. pestis </em>to determine the efficacy of the vaccine strain.  This research could lead to the generation and utilization of a bivalent vaccine targeting two possible bioterror agents; the strategy for vaccine construction could potentially be applied toward protection against other pathogens.</p>}, number={1}, journal={Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science}, author={Macom, Rhiannon Virginia and Horzempa, Joseph}, year={2017}, month={Apr.} }