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Author: Donna Huber

UGA researchers developing new models for malaria drug development and testing

Donna Huber on September 23, 2021

CTEGD member Chet Joyner and CTEGD director Dennis Kyle receive a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for malaria drug development and testing Two UGA researchers are working to make it easier to develop effective treatments for malaria, a disease that sickens millions worldwide and kills hundreds of thousands each year. In tropical …

Unprotected water sources and low latrine coverage are contributing factors to persistent hotspots for schistosomiasis in western Kenya

Donna Huber on September 17, 2021

Background: Evidence indicates that whereas repeated rounds of mass drug administration (MDA) programs have reduced schistosomiasis prevalence to appreciable levels in some communities referred to here as responding villages (R). However, prevalence has remained high or less than anticipated in other areas referred to here as persistent hotspot villages (PHS). Using a cross-sectional quantitative approach, this …

Researchers to test drug candidates to treat malaria

Donna Huber on September 15, 2021

by Donna Huber Belen Cassera is leading a research team that will test two new drugs for the treatment of malaria. The team's work will be funded by a $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. (Photo credit: Amy Ware) Though malaria was eliminated from the U.S. 70 years ago, the mosquito-borne disease …

Cassera named summer 2021 Innovation Fellow

Donna Huber on August 9, 2021

by Ashley Crain Belen Cassera (Submitted photo) Associate professor Belen Cassera is one step closer to introducing her research to the marketplace. Having spent the summer as UGA’s newest Innovation Fellow, Cassera has learned a lot about how to bring parasitic disease therapeutics arising from her research to market. “In fall 2019, I was among the 18 chosen women …

Ph.D. candidate Ale Villegas and advisor Vasant Muralidharan receive Gilliam Graduate Fellowship Award

Donna Huber on July 28, 2021

PhD Candidate Ale Villegas and Advisor Dr. Vasant Muralidharan (Photo Courtesy of Vasant Muralidharan) Malaria’s connection to Georgia goes back to the colonial period. The Southeastern United States provided prime conditions for a thriving mosquito population which ensured the spread of the disease. The state capital moved from Louisville to Milledgeville in 1806 in part because of …

Turnover of Variant Surface Glycoprotein in Trypanosoma brucei Is a Bimodal Process

Donna Huber on July 28, 2021

African trypanosomes utilize glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) to evade the host immune system. VSG turnover is thought to be mediated via cleavage of the GPI anchor by endogenous GPI-specific phospholipase C (GPI-PLC). However, GPI-PLC is topologically sequestered from VSG substrates in intact cells. Recently, A. J. Szempruch, S. E. Sykes, R. Kieft, L. …

Evaluation of the in vitro susceptibility of various filarial nematodes to emodepside

Donna Huber on July 28, 2021

Filariae are vector-borne nematodes responsible for an enormous burden of disease. Human lymphatic filariasis, caused by Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori, and onchocerciasis (caused by Onchocerca volvulus) are neglected parasitic diseases of major public health significance in tropical regions. To date, therapeutic efforts to eliminate human filariasis have been hampered by the lack …

Delayed treatment with the immunotherapeutic LNFPIII ameliorates multiple neurological deficits in a pesticide-nerve agent prophylactic mouse model of Gulf War Illness

Donna Huber on July 10, 2021

Residual effects of the 1990-1991 Gulf War (GW) still plague veterans 30 years later as Gulf War Illness (GWI). Thought to stem mostly from deployment-related chemical overexposures, GWI is a disease with multiple neurological symptoms with likely immunological underpinnings. Currently, GWI remains untreatable, and the long-term neurological disease manifestation is not characterized fully. The present …