Backpackers Beware! Human Protozoan Parasitic Diseases

Speakers

Organizers

Shirley Raps, PhD

Hunter College, CUNY

Shirley Raps, Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Hunter College of CUNY, is a long-time member of the Microbiology Section of the NYAS.  Her research has involved characterizing  Microcystis aeruginosa strain UV027, a fresh water, toxin-producing cyanobacterium known to be a health hazard to animals and humans.  She has analyzed the light harvesting complex, the phycobilisome, of this bacterium, sequenced the two operons involved in the non-ribosomal synthesis of the heptapeptide toxin microcystin RR in strain UV027, and is examining ways to control the expression of this toxin.  She isolated the sole plasmid from UV027, ligated it to pBluescript and created a shuttle vector as a potential transformation system.  Her lab is also well on its way towards completely sequencing the genome of this organism.

Dr. Raps is also involved in science education with funding from an HHMI Undergraduate Science Education Grant.  The grant funds the promotion of research by undergraduates at Hunter College, at the Marine Biological laboratory and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, in order to encourage these students to pursue research careers via PhD or MD-PhD programs.  She is also Director of an Outreach Program to high school and middle school teachers and their students with the goal of increasing the interest in science/scientific research among pre-college students.  She is partnering with the Manhattan Hunter Science High School to enable interested students to take a Research Techniques Facility Workshop during the academic year and participate in a summer research internship at Hunter College. 

Jennifer Henry. PhD

The New York Academy of Sciences

Speakers

Johanna Daily, MD

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Dr. Daily is an Infectious Disease trained physician who has been carrying out field studies of malaria for over ten years. She received her MD at SUNY Upstate, completed an Internal Medicine residency at Tufts Medical Center and an Infectious Disease fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is presently an associate professor in the departments of Medicine (Infectious Disease) and Microbiology and Immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her laboratory research interest is in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The goal of the research has been to define the molecular mechanisms that underlie the variation of disease outcomes in P. falciparum. They have identified novel parasite biology when it resides in the human host; this biology has not been reported under in vitro cultivation and may play a role in enhanced virulence and/or transmission capacity. To further understand the implications of these novel in vivo states they study the parasite under in vitro conditions that mimic host blood stream conditions. They are also studying host response to infection using whole genome approaches to identify host factors that associate with severe disease outcomes. Using a complementary approach of high throughput small molecule analysis they have begun to identify parasite specific small molecules in vivo and in vitro. The long term goal is to refine the model of pathogenesis to identify parasite and host processes involved in disease to serve as targets for vaccine or chemotherapeutic development.

Jayne Raper, PhD

New York University School of Medicine

Jayne Raper has been working on African Trypanosomiasis for 25 years. Starting in the UK, then working in Brazil, Belgium and Kenya. She is currently an Associate Professor at New York University School of Medicine in the department of Microbiology and Parasitology. Her research interests have always been in host parasite interactions. Recently she has begun to investigate the broader microbicidal action of TLF, the good cholesterol, against other parasites and bacteria.

Honorine Ward, MD

Tufts University School of Medicine

Honorine Ward, MD is Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and directs an NIH-funded research and training program on HIV/AIDS and associated opportunistic infections at Tufts Medical Center. She is program director of the HIV pathogenesis training program for MD and PhD post-doctoral fellows at Tufts medical Center. Her laboratory studies the apicomplexan parasite Cryptosporidium which is a significant cause of diarrheal disease worldwide, particularly in patients with HIV/AIDS and malnourished children in developing countries. Her research is focused on investigating the role of parasite and host glycoproteins and glycan binding proteins in mediating parasite attachment to and invasion of host intestinal epithelial cells. In addition she is investigating enzymes such as subtilases and glycosyl transferases that postranslationally modify these proteins and which may serve as targets for intervention. In clinical and translational studies, she is studying the molecular epidemiology of cryptosporidiosis and investigating immune responses to proteins that mediate attachment and invasion, in infected children and HIV-infected adults in developing countries. New areas of research are directed at investigating alterations in the intestinal microbiota in cryptosporidiosis and the use and mechanism of action of probiotics for treatment of cryptosporidiosis in children. The long term goal of her studies is to develop specific, preventive and therapeutic interventions for cryptosporidiosis.