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 Tilahun
Yilma, a veterinary virologist who genetically engineered a
vaccine for a deadly cattle disease and is now working to
develop an AIDS vaccine, has been named the 2002 Faculty
Research Lecturer by his colleagues at the University of
California, Davis.
The 60th annual presentation of this honor, which recognizes
exceptional research contributions of a campus faculty member,
was made today during the annual spring meeting of the UC Davis
Academic Senate. This is the highest honor UC Davis faculty
members can bestow upon their peers. Traditionally, the
recipient presents a springtime campus lecture related to his or
her research.
"Tilahun Yilma is part of a UC Davis tradition of both
expanding fundamental knowledge and applying that knowledge for
great practical good," said George Breuning of the academic
senate's Faculty Research Lecturer selection committee.
"His research efforts have advanced our knowledge of
vaccine biology, created new vaccines, and saved and empowered
lives in developing regions of the world, particularly in
Africa."
Yilma's interest in livestock diseases can be traced back to
his childhood in Ethiopia, where he learned from his grandmother
about "Yekebit Elkkit," the Year of the Annihilation
of Cattle. It was in that year, 1888, that Italian troops
invading Ethiopia inadvertently introduced the deadly viral
disease "rinderpest" to Africa. Carried by just three
infected cows, rinderpest spread from Ethiopia's east coast
across the Sahel Desert, killing in just one year 90 percent of
the domesticated cattle, plus countless wild buffalo, giraffe
and antelope.
As a result, an estimated 30 percent to 60 percent of
Ethiopia's population starved to death that year.
After earning his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in
1970 from the School of Veterinary Medicine, Yilma returned to
Ethiopia and spent two years as a veterinarian tracking the
nomadic herders in the campaign to vaccinate Africa's cattle and
wipe out rinderpest. More than 125 million cattle were
vaccinated, and for several years it appeared that rinderpest
had been eradicated in Africa. But in 1980, the virus resurfaced
in Nigeria and swept back across the Sahel. Ethiopia and Somalia
were then embroiled in conflict and it was impossible to
vaccinate the livestock along their border to halt the spread of
the disease.
In its return, rinderpest killed an estimated $400 million
worth of cattle and sapped more than $2 billion in related
losses out of Africa's already weak economy.
When Yilma returned to UC Davis in 1986 as a professor of
virology he was determined to develop a rinderpest vaccine
suited to Africa's climate and economy. In just one year, he
published in the journal Science, the development of an
elegantly simple vaccine produced through genetic engineering.
Based on the vaccinia virus, the same virus used to make the
smallpox vaccine, the new rinderpest vaccine didn't require
refrigeration, could easily be scratched onto the animal's neck
or abdomen without injection, and could be reproduced in
abundance using a scab from the vaccination site.
Yilma spent the next decade refining the vaccine and working
through numerous political and regulatory challenges. In 1997
the vaccine was approved for widespread use throughout Africa.
It was the first genetically engineered vaccine to be released
by a U.S.-funded researcher in a foreign country. He went on to
develop inexpensive diagnostic kits for rinderpest and made them
available to African scientists.
His research efforts are now focused on using similar
recombinant-DNA technology to develop a vaccine for AIDS.
Yilma's dedication to developing a rinderpest vaccine was
matched by a passion to encourage young scientists in developing
nations. For years he had watched the best and brightest young
minds from struggling nations come to the United States for
advanced education, only to find upon graduation that their home
nations lacked the sophisticated laboratories necessary to carry
out the research they had been trained for.
Undaunted, Yilma worked to secure funding for new
biotechnology laboratories in developing countries. As a result
of his efforts, the U.S. Agency for International Development in
1990, with the help of the Egyptian government, constructed near
Cairo the Laboratory of Molecular Biology for Tropical Diseases,
an offspring of Yilma's own laboratory at UC Davis School of
Veterinary Medicine.
Yilma has earned three degrees from UC Davis: a bachelor's
degree in veterinary science in 1968, a Doctor of Veterinary
Medicine degree in 1970 and a doctoral degree in microbiology in
1977.
He served from 1980 to 1986 as a faculty member in the
department of veterinary microbiology and pathology at
Washington State University and from 1977 to 1979 as a research
associate at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Plum Island
Animal Disease Center in New York.
Over the years, Yilma's research accomplishments have been
recognized with numerous professional awards including the Smith
Kline Beecham Award for Excellence in Research in 1988, and the
Ciba-Geigy Award for Research in Animal Science in 1989.
On campus, he has been honored with the UC Davis
Distinguished Public Service Award in 1994, the School of
Veterinary Medicine's Faculty Award for Research Excellence in
1993 and 1991 and the UC Davis Alumni Achievement Award in 1991.
Media contact:
Tilahun Yilma, Veterinary Medicine,
(530) 752-8306
tdyilma@ucdavis.edu
The above information was distributed by Campus News Service
February 26, 2002.
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