MiraVista Diagnostics renowned as leader in histoplasmosis testing

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Specialized lab is special indeed

MiraVista Diagnostics renowned as leader in histoplasmosis testing

Indianapolis Star,IN*

By Shari Rudavsky

May 27, 2008

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

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A In the late 1970s Indianapolis earned the distinction of being

home to the country's largest outbreak of histoplasmosis, a fungal

infection that causes flu-like symptoms.

At the time, 435 people were sickened after they inhaled soil spores

contaminated by bird droppings. The outbreak convinced an

entrepreneur to open a laboratory that would test for the infection.

Today, MiraVista Diagnostics, the company started by a former

Indiana University School of Medicine physician, leads the nation in

performing tests for histoplasmosis and a handful of other fungal

infections.

In six years MiraVista has doubled its staff from a startup crew of

six to 13 employees. The company is based at a modest office near

Indianapolis International Airport.

Behind it all is Dr. ph Wheat, considered the nation's leading

expert on histoplasmosis.

" Both Dr. Wheat and his laboratory are a national resource, " said

Dr. Walsh of the National Cancer Institute. " They address the

clinical and laboratory needs for developing diagnostic assays for

some of the most serious and life-threatening mycoses (fungal

infections) that we encounter. "

Before Wheat's method of testing, doctors had no easy way to

diagnose histoplasmosis, a potentially lethal condition. With

previous testing, diagnoses took weeks, giving the disease more time

to progress.

When the Indiana outbreak hit, Wheat was in the early years of his

career as an infectious disease specialist at IU, studying

staphylococcus, a common bacteria. He also had been an Air Force

physician stationed in California, where he treated about 30

patients with a disease known as San Joaquin Fever, which is similar

to histoplasmosis.

In Indiana an estimated 70 percent of people have been exposed to

histoplasmosis, health experts say. Most healthy people, however,

will never be diagnosed because the infection clears up without

medical attention.

But people with compromised immune systems, such as those with HIV

or organ transplants, may develop more serious symptoms. People who

are exposed to high doses of the spores can become seriously ill.

Wheat spent years looking for a better, faster test to diagnose

histoplasmosis. Eventually, he devised one that produces results

within hours, and he used his own money to start the company.

Named after his first grandchild MiraBella, Wheat's company

originally ran about 500 histoplasmosis tests a week. Today it does

about three times as many.

Samples that arrive at MiraVista on Monday mornings are tested the

same day and results are returned by afternoon, allowing the lab to

get results to a physician within 24 hours. That speed was critical

to Wheat.

" My background was as a physician taking care of patients, so my

interest is getting results to physicians as quickly as possible, "

he said.

The year after the company opened, Wheat and his colleagues

developed a rapid test for another fungal infection, blastomycosis,

which afflicts people and animals.

The company is now in the final stages of developing a test to

detect San Joaquin Valley Fever, the first fungal infection that

captured Wheat's attention.

Even though Wheat left academia six years ago, his company retains

an air of campus culture. He publishes about eight peer- reviewed

journals a year.

His office, tucked away in an upstairs corner of the lab, has a

makeshift look, with exposed pipes and shelves stacked with boxes

filled with reprints from his many academic papers.

And he still runs the business like a senior investigator.

" I'm not in the lab doing things, but I'm the one coming up with the

ideas, " he said. " My interest is in research and in clinical

science. "

Wheat's combination of scientific and clinical acumen, along with

his personal touch, sets his lab apart from others, say doctors who

rely on his results to treat their patients.

" It's a unique, very specialized lab, " said Dr. Norris, an

infectious disease specialist with Infectious Disease of Indiana, a

private practice with several local offices. " I can call his lab

with a question about histoplasmosis or blastomycosis, and he will

get on the phone and help me.''

Wheat said he has been contacted by companies interested in buying

MiraVista. But he's not selling.

" This is more my love than my job, " he said.

Call Star reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354.