Dr. Daniel LaBarbera, University of Colorado, collaborates with Anjan Debnath, CDIPD, to study natural products against Entamoeba histolytica. Drs. LaBarbera and Debnath are recipients of the grant awarded by the Skaggs Scholars Program funded by the ALSAM Foundation to stimulate collaborative research between Skaggs institutions.
Dr. Elizabeth Winzeler, UC San Diego, co-supports drug screening facility with CDIPD. Her own interests are in drug screens versus the liver stages and gametocytes of malaria. She helps maintain a large insectiary at UCSD from which sporozoites can be harvested from mosquitoes.
Dr. Emily Troemel, UC San Diego, uses C. elegans is an experimental model for micorsporidia infection. She is providing key advice and consultation to Dr. Connor Caffrey for his work on the parasitic roundworm, Ancylostoma. Her own work on C. elegans should provide important insights into the cell biology of roundworm parasites that are the free living “cousins" of C. elegans.
Dr. Jonathan Ellman, Yale University. CDIPD has been collaborating with the Ellman lab on development of cruzain inhibitors, particularly non-peptidic molecules.
Dr. Kelly Chibale, University of Cape Town. The Chibale lab focuses on chemistry devoted to novel therapies for human health (TB and malaria) and animal health (helminthiasis).
Dr. Kip Guy, St Jude Hospital. CDIPD has collaborated with the Guy lab in discovery of protease inhibitors targeting Trypanosoma brucei.
Dr. Matt Cooper, The University of Queensland, Australia. CDIPD has been collaborating with the Cooper laboratory since early 2014 to develop new leads for amebiasis and giardiasis. Cooper group has developed an efficient synthetic approach for a specific compound class and CDIPD is testing those compounds for antiparasitic activity. Dr. Anjan Debnath of CDIPD hosted Angie Jarrad, a PhD student in the Cooper Group for her short-term research at CDIPD.
Dr. Michael H. Hsieh. CDIPD has been collaborating with the Hsieh lab to develop a novel point-of-care diagnostic for schistosomiasis.
Dr. Mike Pollastri, Northeastern University - medicinal chemistry for hit to lead and lead optimization targeting neglected tropical diseases
Dr. Momar Ndao, McGill University, is an expert on both in vitro screens and animal models of Cryptosporidium. He previously collaborated with CDIPD personnel identifying the major cysteine protease of Cryptosporidium as a valid target for chemotherapy.
Dr. Rosa Andrade, Institute of Immunology, UC Irvine, is studying the biology and genetics of Toxoplasma and collaborates with CDIPD personnel on drug screens.
Dr. Sara Lustigman, New York Blood Center. CDIPD collaborates with the Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology, headed by Sara Lustiman, Ph.D, in filarid parasites, specifically those that cause onchocerciasis, also known as "river blindness", and lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis. The joint effort is focused, along with Anacor and Rahul Singh, in discovering new therapeutics to treat these diseases.
Dr. William Roush, Scripps Florida. CDIPD has been collaborating for years with the Roush laboratory, screening medicinal chemistry series targeting the proteases of T. brucei and T. cruzi in vitro and in vivo. More recently, this collaboration has been extended to include optimization of novel compounds targeting the ergosterol biosynthetic pathway, specifically CYP51, sterol 14-demethylase.