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Tag: Docampo

Trainee Spotlight: Evgeniy Potapenko

trainee Evgeniy Potapenko
Evgeniy Potapenko, a post-doctoral trainee in Roberto Docampo‘s laboratory, is from Kyiv, Ukraine. He obtained his MD from Bogomolets National Medical University (Kyiv) in 1997. Then he proceeded to earn a Ph.D. from Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology (Kyiv) in 2004. Later he conducted postdoctoral training in Europe at the University of Goettingen and the University of Birmingham and also in the USA at Augusta University before coming to the University of Georgia. Evgeniy is a recipient of the Center’s NIH funded T32 Training Grant for Interdisciplinary Parasitology, Vector Biology, and Emerging Diseases.

Evgeniy’s research focus

Generally, Evgeniy is interested in mechanisms of transmembrane transport and their role in parasite homeostasis. His current project goal is to characterize how the IP3R function modulated within the Trypanosoma brucei, the parasite that causes African Sleeping Sickness, acidocalcisomes where it resides and how deregulation of this process can contribute to cell death. This research topic addresses poorly studied mechanisms of parasite physiology and has the potential importance of discovering new methods of patient treatment.

Capstone Experience

Each T32 trainee is provided with the opportunity to complete a capstone experience at the end of their fellowship. This experience often involves an extended visit to a collaborator’s laboratory to learn new techniques or to an endemic country to see how their research connects to actions being taken in the field.

“I hope to expand my expertise in both electrophysiology and cellular biology approaches, which will allow me to conduct independent research,” said Evgeniy.

T32 fellowship helps trainee achieve goals

“T32 is a unique possibility to prepare me for an independent research career,” said Evgeniy. “It gives great tools to achieve this goal.”

Roberto Docampo named UGA recipient of SEC Faculty Achievement Award

Roberto Docampo

Athens, Ga. – Roberto Docampo, Distinguished Research Professor of Cellular Biology and Barbara and Sanford Orkin/Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar, has been named the University of Georgia’s recipient of the 2017 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award.

The award, which is administered by provosts at the 14 universities in the SEC, recognizes professors with outstanding records in teaching and scholarship who serve as role models for students and other faculty members. Winners receive a $5,000 honorarium.

Docampo, a faculty member in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, is a world-renowned researcher known for his work on neglected parasitic diseases including malaria, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness. He also is credited with the discovery of a novel organelle, the acidocalcisome, conserved from bacteria to human platelets, where it has a role in blood coagulation. His most recent work at UGA includes the successful use of the CRISPR/Cas9 technique to edit the genome of Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease. He also has characterized a key signaling pathway in the parasite, which could allow for advances in drugs or vaccines to treat or prevent parasitic diseases.

“Dr. Docampo is advancing research with implications for millions of people around the world while also educating and mentoring students who themselves will go on to improve global health,” said Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Pamela Whitten. “His work exemplifies the vital role this institution plays in creating healthier communities in Georgia and beyond.”

Docampo joined the UGA faculty in 2005 after serving as a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His career also included serving as a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and as a visiting professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and at Rockefeller University.

Docampo, who has written more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in top scientific journals, currently acts as the principal investigator on four grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling more than $7.2 million, and Brazilian grants fund a second laboratory in Campinas, São Paulo. In total, his research has garnered more than $20 million from organizations such as the NIH, World Health Organization, American Health Association, Georgia Research Alliance and GlaxoSmithKline.

Docampo has received numerous teaching and mentoring awards, and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He currently serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, as well as on the editorial boards of four additional journals. In addition to the medical degree and two doctoral degrees he earned from the University of Buenos Aires and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Docampo was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the National University of San Martin in Argentina in 2013.

For more information about the SEC Faculty Achievement Awards, see http://www.thesecu.com/programs/sec-faculty-achievement-awards/.

Writer: Camie Williams