By Andrea Woo
A University of Victoria researcher says she and a colleague are close to developing a vaccine for syphilis, a disease that has reached its highest rates in B.C. in 30 years.
Microbiologist Caroline Cameron and Sheila Lukehart, a professor in the University of Washington’s department of global health, have received a nearly $3-million grant from the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. The grant will help fund preclinical trials.
Dr. Cameron has studied the sexually-transmitted infection for two decades and runs the only lab in Canada that researches how the pathogen that causes it spreads throughout the body. Dr. Lukehart’s research focuses on the initial stage of the disease: preventing the formation of a chancre that is unique to syphilis
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