Tags: Faculty

PhD Candidate Ale Villegas and Advisor Dr. Vasant Muralidharan
PhD Candidate Ale Villegas and Advisor Vasant Muralidharan Receive Gilliam Graduate Fellowship Award

Malaria’s connection to Georgia goes back to the colonial period. The Southeastern United States provided prime conditions for a thriving mosquito population which ensured the spread of the disease. The state capital moved from Louisville to Milledgeville in 1806 in part because of malaria outbreaks among the state’s General Assembly. Later, the federal Office of Malaria Control in War Areas was established in Atlanta instead of…

Ronald Drew Etheridge, UGA assistant professor of cellular biology, was awarded a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his gene-editing work on Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas’ disease. (Photo by Donna Huber)
Serendipity leads UGA researcher into uncharted territory and a new NIH grant

Ronald Drew Etheridge’s scientific career can be characterized by one word—serendipity. After completing his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology with a Spanish language minor at the University of Georgia, Etheridge set out for Spain, where he traveled and worked as an English teacher. On his return home, and in need of a job, a former coworker mentioned a potential opening for a technician at UGA in the lab of Rick…

Dr. Silvia Moreno
Dr. Silvia Moreno elected as American Academy of Microbiology Fellow

University of Georgia researcher, a member of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and a Distinguished Research Professor in cellular biology, has been elected as a 2021 American Academy of Microbiology Fellow. Holding courtesy appointments in microbiology and infectious diseases, Moreno also serves as director of the NIH-funded Training in Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases program. “This is an honor that…

Dr. Roberto Docampo
Dr. Roberto Docampo is Part of Research Team Developing Tools to Genetically Manipulate Marine Protists

Marine protists are a highly diverse collection of species, and the inability to genetically modify a large majority of them has been a major hurdle to their study. Dr. Roberto Docampo collaborated with Virginia Edgcomb and her lab at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to develop genetic tools that would allow successful transfection of genes into Bodo saltans. Bodo saltans is a unicellular organism found in marine and freshwater habitats.…

Dr. Rachel Roberts-Galbraith
Dr. Rachel Roberts-Galbraith Wins the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship

Dr. Rachel Roberts-Galbraith has been awarded the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. She will receive $70,000 to support her research over the next two years. She is only the 12th Sloan recipient to come from the University of Georgia since the fellowship program began over 60 years ago. Dr. Roberts-Galbraith’s research seeks to understand the flatworm’s ability to regrow missing tissue after a wide range of amputations or injuries. She…


Study Reveals Key Cause of Treatment Failure in Chagas Disease

Dr. Rick Tarleton and his research team at the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases at the University of Georgia have uncovered what could be the underlying cause of ineffectual drug treatments for Chagas disease. Chagas disease causes irreparable damage to the heart and digestive system, and kills more than 50,000 people each year in Central and South America. Effective prevention and treatment methods are virtually nonexistent. His…

Cells
NIH Awards $1.875 Million to Study Malaria Parasite

Dr Vasant Muralidharan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Cellular Biology, and his research team at the University of Georgia’s Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases are making great strides in understanding how the parasite Plasmodium falciparum invades human red blood cells to cause malaria symptoms that include fever, severe anemia, breathing difficulty, and kidney failure. The parasite can also cause the most severe forms…


Julie Stanton Receives Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching Award

Dr. Julie Stanton is one of four recipients of the 2018 Sandy Beaver Excellence in Teaching Award. These awards for excellence in teaching honor outstanding faculty in the Franklin College who have shown a sustained commitment to high-quality instruction.

A Toxoplasma gondii parasite with cytosolic Green fluorescent protein and the mitochondrial red fluorescent marker.
A Double Hit Strategy May Lead to Better Treatment for Toxoplasmosis

Dr Silvia Moreno and her research team at the University of Georgia’s Center for Tropical & Emerging Global Diseases and Department of Cellular Biology are providing evidence that it is possible to develop a drug combination to target Toxoplasmosis that synergistically inhibits both host and parasite enzymes. Toxoplasmosis is caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. It is found throughout the world and can infect both humans and animals. It…


Dr. Rick Tarleton Named Regents’ Professor

Dr. Rick Tarleton, Distinguished Research Professor and University of Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Biological Sciences, has been named Regents' Professor. This is an honor conferred on one faculty member in the university each year. Regents' Professorships are bestowed by the University System of Georgia's Board of Regents on faculty members whose scholarship is recognized nationally and internationally as innovative…
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