Goldstein intends to identify and characterize a new category of vaccine target, referred to as a 'common surface protein', one universal to all the otherwise variant capsular types of S. pneumoniae. The novel foundation of this strategy is his identification of genes coding for such common proteins, that are resistant to mutation, thus invariant throughout the species. He recently published the basis for this finding, revealing that existence of genes within previously unidentified regions of the pneumococcal chromosome that are so essential to survival that variation here proves lethal. As such, these regions, referred to as 'cold spots', could code for invariant outer surface proteins, thus highly promising vaccine targets. Proof of this critical property is to be derived from a unique, world-wide collection of pneumococcal disease isolates of S. pneumonia which Goldstein has organized by evolutionary genetic-relatedness. As such, this organized collection of approximately 1,000 pneumococcal isolates can be used as a template of species evolutionary diversity across which it is possible to test whether indeed a proposed protein vaccine target is in fact 'conserved' across species diversity.

"Boston University and the School of Medicine are very grateful to The Hartwell Foundation for supporting Dr. Goldstein's ambitious and innovative research, mobilizing the power of bacterial evolutionary genetics to develop a vaccine against major cause of child mortality in the US," said Karen Antman, MD, provost, Boston University Medical Campus and dean, Boston University School of Medicine. "Funding for such adventurous, creative research is rare, but it is critical to the research mission of the School and the progress of medicine. Given the competitiveness of the process, funding of a Boston University investigator for the third straight year reflects well on the exceptional quality of our faculty," she added.

"The Hartwell Foundation is pleased to provide financial support to exceptional individuals who are pursuing biomedical research to advance children's health. The ten award winning research proposals in 2009 represent innovative and cutting edge technology from disciplines that include molecular biology, diagnostics, infectious disease, tissue engineering and neurobiology," said Frederick A. Dombrose, PhD, President of The Hartwell Foundation.

Source: Boston University Medical Center