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Ken Stuart , Ph.D.

		Member, Director and President Seattle Biomedical Research Institute Professor, Department of Pathobiology University of Washington Email: ken.stuart@sbri.org Disease under study: Leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, African sleeping sickness

Mission
The Stuart lab studies complex single-celled organisms that cause a staggering amount of human and animal disease worldwide. The research is designed to develop understanding of fundamental molecular processes in these organisms in order to identify targets for new drugs and discover components of these parasites that can be developed into vaccines and diagnostic tools.

Research
The Stuart lab is focused on Trypanosomatid pathogens: Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi, and Leishmania species. One major focus is on the process of, the molecular machinery for, and the physiological significance of RNA editing, and the potential for developing drugs directed at this process or its physiological role. 

Dr. Stuart determined the general mechanism of editing, identified many components of the editosome and the functions and interactions of many of these components. His lab is exploring editosome functional structure, steps in the editing process, and effects on parasite physiology upon disruption of editing. 

A second focus of the Stuart lab is functional genomics. He led the formation of international genome projects that sequenced and compared Trypanosome and Leishmania genomes in close collaboration with Peter Myler, Ph.D.  His current projects are building on these sequencing efforts and include a mitochondrial proteomic project that is designed to identify the functions of all proteins in this organelle for the purpose of developing drugs that are needed for several diseases caused by this group of pathogens.

Much of the support for Dr. Stuart’s research is provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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