Andrew
Levin ’76’s anthrax test will be used in case
of a major outbreak or terrorist attack. (Photo by Steve Nelson)
Detecting
disease Andrew Levin ’76 develops diagnostic test for
anthrax
Before the outbreak of anthrax cases in the fall of
2001, the disease had not been a significant public-health problem
in the United States since the 1920s and 30s, when cases were reported
among wool workers. As a result, tests to diagnose anthrax had not
moved much beyond growing bacteria on a culture plate. “There
wasn’t much anthrax around, and public-health infrastructure
and knowledge of this disease had faded,” explains Andrew
Levin ’76, chief executive officer and scientific director
of Immunetics, Inc., the Boston-based immuno-diagnostic company
he founded in 1987.
Within hours of the first recent confirmed case of anthrax, the
Centers for Disease Control asked Levin, who had developed diagnostic
tests for HIV and Lyme disease, whether he could develop a simple,
fast diagnostic test for anthrax — in other words, a test
to bring anthrax diagnostics into the modern world. At the time,
the tests being used were too slow in producing results, which could
prove disastrous should an epidemic occur.
“Anthrax is a tough problem because we don’t want
to give inaccurate results that will scare people,” Levin
says. “At the same time, we need something that is relatively
fast, does not take days to run, and would give a solid yes-or-no
result.” His new diagnostic tool, which detects an immune
response to the disease by identifying antibodies in the blood,
combines the simplicity of a screening test with the accuracy of
a confirmatory test, merging what in the past had been two separate
tests.
The Federal Drug Administration approved the test in June. Now
Levin is working with the CDC to facilitate distribution of the
test around the U.S. through the Laboratory Response Network, a
group of 150 labs equipped to respond quickly in case of a terrorist
attack.
Levin, a biochemistry major with a Ph.D. in molecular biology
from the University of Wisconsin, realized during a postdoctoral
stint at Harvard University that he was more interested in the public-health
issues connected with infectious diseases than in basic research.
“I like the idea of trying to do something helpful and productive
in public health,” Levin says. In addition to developing tests
for well-known diseases such as HIV, Lyme disease, and anthrax,
Levin’s company has created tests for little-known Third World
diseases, including cysticercosis, a disease caused by a tapeworm.
The company currently is working on a test for severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS).
Levin believes that the field of diagnostics, which is a smaller
field than drug or vaccine development, is beginning to get more
attention, particularly as infectious diseases such as SARS and
West Nile virus cause public alarm. “People are beginning
to see that these things don’t go away and every year brings
something new,” he says.
By Kathryn Beaumont ’96
Kathryn Beaumont ’96 is a writer in Cambridge, Mass.
