Bluefield State Technical College September 10, 2015 BSC Faculty Member Receives Grant from WV-INBRE for Research in the Application of Natural Products for Immunotherapy Dr. Tesfaye Belay, Professor of Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences at Bluefield State College, has been selected to receive a $30,000 grant award from the Center for Natural Product Research of the West Virginia-Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (WV-INBRE) for the year 2015 to 2016. "The research underwritten by this grant focuses upon investigating the mechanisms in which feeding stressed mice with active hexose correlated compound (AHCC) of mushroom extract restores immune function during Chlamydia trachomatis genital infection," Dr. Belay commented. Dr. Belay's research group has received the funding for this product for the third time to continue developing a countermeasure/immunotherapy against stress in mice. The immunotherapeutics studies stem from a major ongoing research work of Dr. Belay focusing on "Effect of stress on pathogenesis of Chlamydia trachomatis and immune responses in a mouse model." AHCC is commercially available, most commonly in Japan, and is used as a nutritional supplement taken orally, the BSC faculty researcher added. The AHCC supply for the BSC research project's experimental purposes has been provided by the Amino Up Chemical Company of Japan. For research collaboration, Dr. Belay, under the WV-INBRE network researchers, recently visited the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi. From its first cycle funding of the natural product, Dr. Belay's research group previously presented its research findings at several national and regional scientific conferences. "The study of immunogenic and immunostimulator compounds as potential countermeasures to infectious diseases is particularly relevant in the current biomedical research realm," Dr. Belay noted. "Our research group is interested in studying the usage of AHCC because it has become increasingly attractive, given the limitations of chlamydia vaccine development." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.