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Nearly 200 scientists, ranging from undergraduate students to postdoctoral fellows to Principal Investigators, work at SBRI, researching various facets of global infectious diseases. Each of our 15 principal investigators lead a lab with a specific research focus.

Members

Ian Nicholas Crispe, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr Crispe joined SBRI full time in 2009. A member of the Malaria Research Program, he also heads the Institute's new Infectious Disease Immunology Initiative, adding expertise to SBRI's infectious disease immunology work across all program areas. He is one of the foremost experts in liver cell immunology with international stature in the field. His specific interest is how immune responses develop to foreign antigens presented in the liver, and his current research spans liver transplantation, hepatitis and gene therapy. Nick will strengthen our Malaria Program's liver-stage vaccine effort, working on the analysis of immune responses to the liver stage and their subversion by the parasite. Previously, he was the Associate Director, Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and of Medicine at the University of Rochester. Prior to joining the University of Rochester, Nick was an Associate Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University. He holds a Ph.D. in immunology, as well as an MB.BS. in medicine, from the University of London.

Patrick Duffy, M.D. 
As Director of SBRI’s Malaria Program, Dr. Duffy leads a team of scientists in both Seattle and Tanzania, who are investigating potential targets for malaria vaccines, identifying basic mechanisms of disease and examining more effective drug treatments against malaria. He also directs the International Malaria Research Training Program based in Seattle and Tanzania. Prior to joining SBRI as a Principal Investigator in 2001, he led a Research Station in Kisumu, Kenya that conducted malaria drug and vaccines studies and also served as Director of Preclinical Vaccine Development for the Malaria Program at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR).  Currently, Dr. Duffy is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.

Michal Fried, Ph.D.
At SBRI since 2001, Dr. Fried became an Assistant Member in 2007. Working closely with the laboratory of Dr. Patrick Duffy, she and her colleagues study the development of vaccines against malaria and work to identify disease biomarkers.  Her studies form the basis of the current effort to develop a pregnancy malaria vaccine.  She is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.

Malcolm Gardner, Ph.D.
Dr. Gardner, who has researched malaria at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Naval Medical Research Institute, came to SBRI in 2005 from The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Maryland, where he led efforts to sequence the genome of the human malaria parasite, P. falciparum. At SBRI, Dr. Gardner is working in conjunction with other scientists in the Malaria Antigen Discovery (MAD) Program to exploit the genome sequence to discover new vaccines or drugs for malaria. He is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.

Christoph Grundner, Ph.D.
Dr. Grundner joined SBRI as Principal Investigator in 2009, and works along side Dr. David Sherman at the Institute's tuberculosis program, which focuses on the base biology of TB bacterium as a means to discover new drugs for the disease. Grundner's lab is working toward a better understanding of the TB bacterium virulence by focusing on immunity and infection. Dr. Grundner comes to SBRI from University of California, Berkeley, where he was a postdoctoral fellow. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Helen Horton, Ph.D.
Dr. Horton joined SBRI's Viral Vaccines Program in January 2008. She received her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of York, UK, and comes to SBRI from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where she was an Associate in Clinical Research, Program in Infectious Disease. Before joining FHRCR in 2001, she was a researcher at the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center.  She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington.

Stefan Kappe, Ph.D.
Dr. Kappe joined SBRI's Malaria Program in the fall of 2003. The focus of his research is the pre-erythrocytic stages of malaria in the human host, and he has developed a genetically attenuated malaria vaccine that will go into human trials soon. Dr. Kappe comes to SBRI from New York University where he was an assistant professor researching blood and liver state malaria.  He is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.

Peter Myler, Ph.D. 
Since joining SBRI in 1982, Dr. Myler’s research has focused on using molecular, genomic and bioinformatic approaches to study gene expression in Leishmania, African trypanosomes and Plasmodium. He is Scientific Advisor for the DNA Sequencing, Protein Production, and Bioinformatics Cores in SBRI’s Global Health and Biotechnology Center. At the University of Washington, he is Research Professor in the Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics, as well as Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Global Health.

Marilyn Parsons, Ph.D. 
With a focus on the cell biology of trypanosomes, Leishmania and Toxoplasma, Dr. Parsons has been a Principal Investigator at SBRI since 1985. She also has served as Associate Director of the Institute since 1988 and is a Professor in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Washington. Dr. Parsons was a member of the Tropical Medicine and Parasitology Study Section of NIH from 1994-1998. Since 2002, she has served on the Malaria Drug Development Review Panel for the Military Infectious Disease Research Program. and is a member of the Faculty of 1000.  Dr. Parsons is also co-director of the Global Infectious Diseases Training Grant which provides research and training opportunities in partnership between SBRI and the University of Washington, with Jawaharlal Nehru University and the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi, India.

David Sherman, Ph.D.
Dr. Sherman joined SBRI as a Principal Investigator in 2007, and serves as Director of the Institute's tuberculosis program, which focuses on the base biology of TB as a means to discover new drugs for the disease.  He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.  He has also served as Research Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Molecular Microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.

Joe Smith, Ph.D. 
A Principal Investigator at SBRI since 2002, Dr. Smith’s research is a central part of SBRI’s Malaria Program, focused on developing potential targets for malaria vaccines. Prior to joining SBRI, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at Colorado State University. In 2000, he received the Ellison Medical Foundation New Investigator Award in Global Infectious Diseases and is currently a member of the American Association of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.  He is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.

Don Sodora, Ph.D.
Dr. Sodora joined SBRI as an Associate Member in 2007. He and his colleagues are working to understand how HIV enters body and eventually causes AIDS. His long-term goal is to apply the knowledge gained from his studies to the development of new therapies and vaccines for HIV-infected patients.  Prior to joining the Institute, Dr. Sodora was an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center in the departments of Microbiology and Internal Medicine.  He is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.

Leonidas Stamatatos, Ph.D. 
A Principal Investigator at SBRI since 2001, Dr. Stamatatos focuses on HIV vaccine development through the Institute’s Viral Vaccines Program, which he directs. He served as a Staff Investigator at Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and as Assistant Professor at Rockefeller University in New York before joining SBRI. Currently, Dr. Stamatatos is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. He is currently leading a Vaccine Discovery Consortium, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, focusing on the identification of vaccines that would elicit protective anti-HIV antibodies. 

Ken Stuart, Ph.D. 
Dr. Stuart, President & Director, founded SBRI in 1976. He is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington, and was Chairman of Pathobiology from 1996-2004.  His research  is focused on unicellular parasites that are estimated to kill around a million people each year. His laboratory utilizes genomics, proteomics, and gene function approaches to generate the knowledge that is needed in order to develop drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines for diseases. He serves on multiple advisory groups and received a Burroughs Wellcome Scholar in Molecular Parasitology Award, Denis Thienpont Prize in Molecular Parasitology, NIAID MERIT Award, and the Stoll-Stunkard Award from the American Society of Parasitologists. 

Ruobing Wang, Ph.D.
A cellular immunologist, Dr. Wang has been involved in the design, production and testing of vaccines against malaria parasites for more than 10 years, most recently at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) before joining SBRI in 2005.  She has worked in the malaria program at the Naval Medical Research Center and has extensive background in clinical trials.  Dr. Wang is a principal investigator in SBRI's Malaria Program, and is an Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.

Ted White, Ph.D. 
Director of SBRI's Emerging Infections Program, Dr. White is a Principal Investigator at SBRI, where he has been researching drug resistance and virulence factors in Candida and Aspergillus since 1996. He is also an Affiliate Professor in the Departments of Global Health, Microbiology and Oral Biology at the University of Washington. He received the Burroughs Wellcome Fund New Investigator Award in Molecular Pathogenic Mycology in 1997 and currently serves as Chair of Division F (Medical Mycology) for the American Society for Microbiology.

 

 

 

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