Bird Flu Research at Rochester

About John Jay Treanor, M.D.

John Treanor, M.D. To download a high-res version of the image, please click on the thumbnail.

John Treanor, M.D., is an infectious disease expert who is currently helping to lead the nation’s effort to find a vaccine to protect against bird flu.

Treanor is professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. At Rochester he heads the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit, or VTEU, part of a Federally funded network of seven centers that the nation relies on to protect its citizens against infectious threats.

Currently Treanor himself is leading three studies of an experimental bird flu vaccine against the most threatening form of bird flu, known as the H5N1 virus:

• A study begun in April 2005 is testing the vaccine, manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur, in 445 healthy people between the ages of 18 and 64 at three sites, including Rochester. The results of this study are being announced in March 2006 in a publication in the New England Journal of Medicine. More than 100 of these participants in Rochester are taking part in an additional ongoing study and received a third dose of the vaccine in the fall of 2005.
• A second study, which began in October 2005, is testing the vaccine in approximately 240 people age 65 and older at four sites, including Rochester.
• A third study is testing the effectiveness of a booster shot of vaccine for subjects who were first vaccinated with a different type of bird-flu vaccine back in 1998.

As the lead investigator for these national studies, Treanor has a pivotal role in determining whether a vaccine is safe and effective at protecting people against bird flu. He oversees the design of the studies, the enrollment of volunteers, and the laboratory testing to check for signs that the body is protected against the virus. Results of the first study indicate that the vaccine is safe and effective, though higher doses than anticipated appear necessary.

Because of Treanor’s efforts testing vaccines, more people in Rochester have been immunized against bird flu than in any other community in the world. Recently his team has agreed to recruit 300 more area residents for two additional studies testing the use of an additive or “adjuvant” to boost the immune response of the bird flu vaccine.

Treanor has long been recognized as a lead researcher on the “regular” flu also. In 2004, in the face of a flu vaccine shortage, the Federal government turned to Treanor to lead a crucial study to assess the safety and effectiveness of a flu vaccine used in other parts of the world but not in the United States. Thanks to the quick turnaround, the vaccine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States, offering the nation an additional source of vaccine and helping to avert another shortage.

Treanor has also been involved in myriad other flu studies and issues. He has led investigations testing the effectiveness of flu vaccines made in alternative ways (i.e. methods that don’t rely on the cumbersome process of using millions of eggs), and he has led studies using different methods to administer flu vaccine in an effort to dilute the vaccine but retain its effectiveness should a vaccine shortage recur.

This isn’t the first time Treanor has been tapped to lead crucial research to protect the health of U.S. citizens. Shortly after the 9/11 tragedy in 2001, the Federal government called on Treanor to lead a landmark study to see if the supply of smallpox vaccine could be stretched, in case it became necessary to resurrect that vaccine in the face of the surging bioterror threat. Thanks to his efforts, within two months a large study was underway which ultimately confirmed that the smallpox vaccine could be diluted and still provide protection, thus dramatically boosting the number of people who would be protected in the face of a smallpox threat.

Much of the work on smallpox, bird flu, and flu is carried out through his role as director of the VTEU. Nearly every new vaccine of the last 30 years has first passed muster at the University’s VTEU; malaria, the flu, anthrax, smallpox, whooping cough, pneumonia and even the common cold are among the diseases targeted by vaccines tested there.

Currently Treanor helps steer the nation’s broad vaccination policy, as a member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). He is a frequent contributor to the New England Journal of Medicine, perhaps the most prestigious medical journal in the world, and has been asked by the journal on more than one occasion to put recent flu developments in perspective for its readers.

Treanor earned his bachelor’s degree from Canisius College in 1975 and his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1979. He joined the University’s faculty in 1989, after a fellowship in infectious disease at the National Institute of Health. He serves as an editor or reviewer for several medical and scientific journals and is a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America.

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