VCU gets $11.5 million women’s health grant

Virginia Commonwealth University has been awarded the first year of a planned, four-year $11.5 million federal grant to study how microorganisms found in the vagina influence health and disease in women.

The grant was awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will bring together VCU researchers to determine the role of genetics in the composition of vaginal microorganisms, changes in the vaginal microbiome associated with disease, and changes associated with common physiological states such as pregnancy or menopause, as well as those that occur in chronic states such as diabetes.

Humans are home to millions of normally harmless microbes. The vagina, like many other body sites, is colonized by complex communities of protective bacteria and other microorganisms. It is generally accepted that these communities of microbes commonly called microbiomes profoundly impact health via effects on the local microenvironment.

Unhealthy and pathological conditions such as bacterial vaginosis, sexually transmitted disease, viral infections such as HPV or even HIV-1, are known to impact the vaginal microbiome. Normal events such as pregnancy are also known to change the microbiome.

The study at VCU is one of several projects through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and is part of the Human Microbiome Project initiative taking place at institutions across the country.

"There is a lot we still do not know about the human microbiome," said Gregory Buck, director of the VCU Center for the Study of Biological Complexity and professor of microbiology and immunology in the VCU School of Medicine. "Studying microbial populations of the vagina will allow us to better understand women's health issues -- particularly those related to the urogenital tract -- and lead to important therapies or interventions to keep women healthy."