Ohio State Microbiologist Only U.S. Scientist to Receive Highly-Competitive World Health Organization Grant
Abhay
Satoskar, microbiology, is the recipient of a highly-competitive
grant from the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical
Diseases (TDR), co-sponsored by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), the World Bank and the World Health Organization
(WHO). Satoskar is the only United States researcher and one of
only seven researchers from around the world to receive this grant.
TDR funds only those research programs that they consider important
enough to have a real impact on public health. TDR's aim is for
researchers to use the funds as platforms to develop their research;
they are also committed to assisting researchers with clinical
trials for successful products.
Satoskar is both a medical doctor, who practiced medicine in India, and a researcher. Satoskar received his M.D. from the University of Bombay and his Ph.D. from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. He came to Ohio State in 2001 from the Harvard School of Public Health, where he began his current research on a group of intracellular protozoan parasites belonging to the Leishmania species. The leishmaniases comprise several diseases caused by these parasites, which put ten percent of the global population at risk for serious infection. It is an endemic problem in much of South America and is on WHO's top ten list of the world's most serious health problems.
As an immunologist and parasitologist, Satoskar has been working to understand how the immune response can be manipulated to control these diseases with the goal of developing an effective vaccine.
While diseases caused by Leishmania have never been a problem in the United States, Satoskar says in the last two years the Leishmania parasite has infected more than 1000 hunting dogs in 21 states and the Canadian province of Ontario. This outbreak in dogs, which are carriers of the parasite, has experts wondering whether it is about to become endemic in North America.
Leishmania-caused diseases are also becoming an increasing problem in HIV patients in Europe and a problem for soldiers in Iraq as well. While these diseases are becoming drug resistant, they can usually be treated successfully if diagnosed in time. Unfortunately, Satoskar says, most physicians in the United States are not typically familiar with the symptoms. All of these facts drive Satoskar to continue to work on developing his DNA vaccine. He is collaborating with a colleague in pharmacy to develop new compounds and is looking at the possibility of working with a lab in Seattle that wants to test his antigens and have him test theirs.
Satoskar is also an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston.
Originally published Autumn 2004
