05/7 - University of Scranton Professor to Lead NATO Conference for Advanced Research on Biological Warfare Agents

The foremost research scientists from 27 countries will convene in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, in July for a three-day NATO Science Program Advanced Research Workshop. Forty-five leading scientists, including Nobel Laureates and other renowned experts, are on the short list invited to the world conference to discuss the latest break-through applications of genomics/proteomics to analyze Bacterial Biological Warfare Agents (BWA).

Leading the world conference as co-directors are Vito G. DelVecchio, Ph.D., biology professor and research director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Medicine (IMBM) at The University of Scranton, and Vladimir Krcmery, Jr., Ph.D., professor of medicine and dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Trnava, Trnava, Slovak Republic. NATO awarded the two professors the opportunity to co-direct the Advanced Research Workshop.

"We are bringing together experts in different but interrelated disciplines to provide a forum to discus the most recent advances in the emerging fields of genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics as they relate to Bacterial Biological Warfare Agents," said Dr. DelVecchio. "Through this summit, we hope to encourage collaboration among the participants."

The collaborative efforts, in turn, may speed the development or improvement of systems to detect and type rapidly harmful BWAs, such as anthrax.

"The conference addresses the goals set forth by the NATO Security-Related Civil Science and Technology Program to use the advances in science and technology to address the issue of dismantling Bacterial Biological Warfare Agents," said Dr. DelVecchio. "Through this conference, we hope to establish a comprehensive worldwide database for rapid detection methodology and fingerprinting that will be accessible to the scientific community."

He hopes the forum may also help to identify problem areas in the development of new human vaccines and the design of novel antimicrobial drugs.

NATO Advanced Science Institute Series will publish a book on the research presented at the conference.

NATO required the conference to occur in a non-member country. The site of Bratislava was chosen because of an existing collaborative arrangement between The University of Scranton and the University of Trnava.

IMBM researchers Cesar Mujer, Ph.D., proteomics scientist, and Guy Patra, Ph.D., research scientist, are playing a pivotal role in arranging the summit, according to Dr. DelVecchio.

An internationally respected researcher, Dr. DelVecchio's consultation on bioterrorism issues has included helping NATO to establish a secure research laboratory in Poland in the spring of 2001. Dr. DelVecchio and his team of researchers at the IMBM recently published research concerning a "real-time" detection method to rapidly identify the presence of Bacillus anthracis and techniques to differentiate strains of the anthrax bacteria in the July and August issues of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. He leads the IMBM's international collaborative research efforts that explore the genetic structure of organisms that cause infectious diseases and cancer.

In 2001, Dr. DelVecchio, assisted by researchers based in Chicago, Louisiana, Belgium, and France, led the effort that resulted in the completion of the DNA sequencing of the pathogenic bacterium Brucella melitensis, at the time one of only about a dozen organisms to be completely sequenced worldwide and the only Brucellae species to be successfully mapped.

Dr. DelVecchio joined The University of Scranton faculty in 1969 and was promoted to professor of biology in 1977. Prior, he was an assistant professor of biology at Stonehill College and also worked as a researcher at Harvard Medical School and University of Michigan.

A Scranton native and resident, Dr. DelVecchio received a bachelor of science degree in biology from The University of Scranton in 1961. He earned his master of science degree in genetics from St. John's University and a Ph.D. in biochemical genetics from Hahnemann Medical College. He completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He received a National Science Foundation Fellowship to General Electric in Valley Forge in 1975 and to Carnegie-Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh in 1976. In 1996 he received The University of Scranton's Frank J. O'Hara Alumni Award.

Dr. DelVecchio is a member of the American Men of Science, Who's Who in Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the author of numerous scholarly research articles and lectures globally on microbial genome research.

An expert in anti-infective drugs and chemotherapy of infectious diseases and medical oncology, Dr. Krcmery has also done extensive research in surveillance of nosocomial infections and antibiotic resistance. He has published over 500 research papers in scholarly journals and has authored 21 chapters in books.

Since 1996 Dr. Krcmery has served as a professor of medicine and dean of the School of Public Health, University of Trnava. He also serves as a professor of pharmacology at Masaryk School of Medicine, University of Brno, Czech Republic. He was a visiting professor at The University of Scranton in 1998.

He is a member of the editorial board for the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, New York, and the editor-in-chief of Anti-infective Drugs and Chemotherapy.

He received the HIS Award for Scientist of the Year in 1999 and the Young Investigators Award, Montreaux, Switzerland, in 1983.

Dr. Krcmery earned a medical degree from Comenius University Medical School, Bratislava, and a Ph.D. from the University of Bratislava.