- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They replace medical entomologist William Reisen, professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine. who retired in June.
Luckhart, a molecular biologist, is a member of the faculty of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and a graduate student advisor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology. She received her doctorate in entomology from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Her expertise includes the molecular cell biology and biochemistry of malaria parasite transmission.
Foley, an epidemiologist, is a member of the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology. She received both her DVM and Ph.D from UC Davis. Foley studies the ecology and epidemiology of vector-borne diseases, particularly tick-transmitted diseases in the western U.S.
Luckhart and Foley, as interim co-directors, will ensure that CVEC meets its mission of promoting multidisciplinary and collaborative excellence in training and research to understand, prevent, and manage vector-borne diseases, according to Michael Lairmore, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Frederick Meyers, vice dean of the School of Medicine.
In a statement posted on the School of Veterinary Medicine's website, the deans wrote: “They will oversee and manage any endowments, contracts, and grants that fund collaborative research and training exchange programs between the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and School of Medicine, as well as key stakeholders and partnering institutions in collaborative training and research initiatives and programs. They will support and enhance collaborations across campus in support of vector-borne disease research and education, national and international collaborations through research and program grants to strengthen both basic and translational research and provide impactful support for the development of vector-borne disease policy locally, nationally, and internationally."
Their duties include coordinating the activities of faculty, staff, and students "to enhance scientific and educational advancement on campus in the area of vector biology and vector-borne diseases."
CVEC encourages participation of faculty from other academic units on the Davis campus and on other campuses in the UC System. Center research focuses on the biological interactions between vectors and infectious agents and between the vectors and vertebrate hosts of these pathogens and parasites.
In addition to the viral diseases of humans, domestic animals and wildlife that are transmitted by mosquitoes and other biting flies, the center also engages in research on rickettsial, bacterial, protozoan and helminth disease pathogens carried by vectors such as ticks, fleas, crustaceans, mollusks, and rodents. Faculty associated with the center have expertise in vectorborne veterinary and human infectious diseases and in public health entomology.
A unique aspect of CVEC is that its research encompasses the full range of activities from developing rapid and more accurate molecular methods for disease diagnosis and surveillance, to understanding the ecology of diseases in its natural setting, to the development of strategies and tools for disease prevention and management.
In addition to Reisen, past directors of CVEC are
- Bennie Osburn, School of Veterinary Medicine (1995 - 1996)
- Bruce Eldridge, Department of Entomology (1996 - 1997)
- Rance LeFebvre, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Tom Scott, Department of Entomology, (1997 - 1999)
- John Edman, Department of Entomology, (1999 - 2004)
- Fred Murphy, School of Veterinary Medicine, (2004)
- James MacLachlan, School of Veterinary Medicine, and Robert Washino, Department of Entomology (2004 - 2005)
- Greg Lanzaro, Department of Entomology (he is now with the School of Veterinary Medicine) (2005 - 2007)
- Dennis Wilson, School of Veterinary Medicine (2007 - 2009)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It promises to be a day of innovation, knowledge-sharing and collaboration, announced Kay Monroe of Zagaya, the event host.
Among the UC Davis researchers participating will be Gregory Lanzaro, professor, and Yoosook Lee, assistant researcher in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology (PMI) in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Shirley Luckhart, professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis School of Medicine. Lanzaro and Luckhart are graduate student advisors in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
Lanzaro's Soundbite presentation,"Malaria in the Americas: A New Research Initiative for the UC Davis Vector Genetics Lab," will key in on the challenges of malaria control in Brazil. Lee's Soundbite presentation will be on a new diagnostic tool for malaria mosquito research. Luckhart is scheduled for both a Soundbite and poster.
Two of the UC Davis presenters, Laura Norris and Bradley Main, are National Institutes of Health T32 postdoctoral fellows. They will cover the topic of malaria vector evolution in the face of insecticide pressure from bed net campaign.
The schedule of events will be presented the day of the symposium.
The list of the other UC Davis presenters, as announced by Monroe:
Nazzy Pakpour, Soundbite; and Elizabeth Glennon, Kristen Lokken, Jason Maloney, Jose Pietri, Rashaun Potts and Lattha Souvannaseng, Bo Wang, poster.
Keynote speakers are:
- Tim Wells, chief scientific officer, Medicines for Malaria Venture, Geneva, Switzerland, who will share the latest efforts to develop new drugs aimed at wiping out malaria.
Title: The Pipeline of Medicines to Support Malaria Control and Elimination
View abstract
Joseph DeRisi, professor and vice chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, UC San Francisco, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, who will talk about work in his lab. - Title: "A View from the Trenches – Anti-malarial Drug Development"
View abstract - Regina Rabinovich, ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar in Residence at the Harvard School of Public Health, who will examine the future of malaria eradication efforts, past the 2015 UN Millennium Development goals.
Title: "Beyond the Millennium Development Goals Horizon – What Will Help Drive Success Post-2015?"
View abstract
This year Zagaya has added to the symposium, "The Malaria Artwork Showcase," designed to display artistic representations of malaria, from the molecular to the global scale. The Lanzaro lab will be among those participating in the showcase.
Officials at Zagaya (which means "spear") say this is a critical time for malaria research professionals to come together, as it's one year away from the 2015 UN Millennium Development goal of halting and reversing the growth of malaria incidence. The symposium provides the forum for researchers, implementers, advocates and students to "inspire and catalyze change for the greater good."
Registration is open and ongoing until the day of the event. General registration is $50, and students, $25. A portion of the registration fee--$10--will go toward purchasing bed nets via the United Nation's Nothing but Nets program, a global, grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria.
"Every 45 seconds a child in Africa dies from malaria, a disease spread by a single mosquito bite," according to the From Nothing But Nets website. "There are more than 200 million cases of malaria each year, and nearly 1 million of those infected die from the disease — most of them children under the age of five." Ten dollars can fund a life-saving, insecticide-treated bed net to protect a family in Africa. The nets are considered one of the most cost-effective tools to prevent the spread of malaria. Bed nets have been shown to reduce malaria transmissions by 90 percent in areas with high coverage rates.
For question about the symposium, email Monroe. Anyone interested in volunteering at the symposium should email volunteer coordinator, Gladys De Leon.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Doctoral research
Her doctoral research was on the host immune response to Leishmania parasites, which provided her valuable experience in mammalian Immunology, as well as a solid background in parasitology and molecular biology. Specifically, her dissertation project focused on the central memory CD4+ T cells generated in response to Leishmania major infection. During her graduate studies, she also attended the prestigious Biology of Parasitism summer course at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Labs. "The course significantly improved my basic knowledge of Parasitology, but also allowed me to work with a variety of parasites, including Plasmodium."
Postdoctoral Research
After completing her doctorate, Pakpour accepted a post-doctoral position in Shirley Luckhart's laboratory at UC Davis. "The laboratory is broadly interested in understanding how the inflammatory factors present in human blood affect malaria parasite transmission," Pakpour noted. In joining the lab, Pakpour shifted from her previous work on adaptive immune responses in mice to the innate immune response of mosquitoes to malaria parasite infection. "In doing so, I have mastered a new body of literature and a broad range of new techniques, including insect cell culture, in vitro cell signaling assays, and culturing of P. falciparum for mosquito infection studies. Further, I adapted our mammalian cell signaling assays for use in mosquito tissues."
Her research goal is to elucidate the bidirectional effects of malaria on Type 2 diabetes and of Type 2 diabetes on malaria. "By 2030, one in five adults on the African continent will have Type 2 diabetes, resulting in epidemic co-morbidity of these diseases," Pakpour said. "Therefore, a better understanding of the intersection of malaria infection and Type 2 diabetes will be critical for the development of future clinical interventions to reduce the burden of Type 2 diabetes complications as well as malaria transmission."
Pakpour's honors include a McBeth Memorial Entomology Scholarship, Presidential Undergraduate Research Fellowship, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Fellowship. She received a traineeship in Cell and Molecular Biology (5-T32-GM-07229-32) from 2002-2004 as well as a traineeship in Parasitology: Modern Approaches (5-T32-AI-007532-09) from 2004-2008. In addition, she was a finalist for the UC Davis Award for Post-doctoral Excellence in 2012 and was named an American Society for Microbiology & Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Science Teaching Fellow, 2013-2014.
Pakpour is a member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), Association for Women in Science (AWIS) and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA).
Her recent publications include:
1. DrexlerAL, PietriJE, Pakpour N, HauckE, WangB, GlennonEKK, GeorgisM, RiehleMA, LuckhartS. (2014) Human IGF1 regulates midgut oxidative stress and epithelial homeostasis to balance lifespan and Plasmodium falciparum resistance in Anopheles stephensi. PLoS Pathogens (under review)
2. Pakpour N, Camp L, Smithers HM, Wang B, Tu Z, Adler SA, Luckhart SL. (2013) Protein kinase C-dependent signaling controls the midgut epithelial barrier to malaria parasite infection in anopheline mosquitoes. PLoS One. 8(10): e76535.
3. Vodovotz Y, Azhar N, Miskov-Zivanov N, Buliga M, Zamora R, Ermentrout B, Constantine G, Faeder J, Pakpour N, Luckhart S. Modeling host-vector-pathogen immuno-inflammatory interactions in malaria., in: G. An and Y. Vodovotz (Ed.), Complex Systems and Computational Biology Approaches to Acute Inflammation. Springer Science & Business Media, New York, NY. 2013. 265-279.
4. Chau JY, Lawrence JA, Tiffany CM, Mooney JP, Lokken KL, Pakpour N, Tsolis RM, Luckhart S. (2013) Malaria-associated L-Arginine deficiency induces mucosal mast cell-dependent disruption to the intestinal barrier defenses against non-typhoidal Salmonella bacteremia. Infect Immun. 81(10):3515-26.
5. Hauck E, Antonova-Koch Y, Drexler A, Pietri J, Pakpour N, Liu D, Blacutt J, Riehle MA, Luckhart S. (2013) Overexpression of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) improves fitness and decreases Plasmodium falciparum development in Anopheles stephensi. Microbes Infect. 15(12):775–787.
6. Pakpour N, Akman-Anderson L, Luckhart SL. (2013) The effects of ingested human blood factors on arthropod immunity and physiology. Microbes Infect 15: 243-254.
7. Luckhart SL, Giulivi C, Drexler AL, Antonova-Koch Y, Sakaguchi D, Napoli E, Wong S, Price MS, Eigenheer R, Phinney BS, Pakpour N, Pietri JE, Cheung K, Georgis M, and Riehle M. (2013) Sustained Activation of Akt elicits mitochondrial dysfunction to block Plasmodium falciparum infection in the mosquito host. PLoS Pathog 9(2): e1003180.
8. Pakpour N, Corby-Harris V, Green G, Smithers H, Cheung KW, Riehle MA, Luckhart SL. (2012) Ingested human insulin inhibits the mosquito innate immune response to Plasmodium falciparum. Infect Immun. 80(6):2141-9
9. Surachetpong W*, Pakpour N*, Cheung KW, and Luckhart SL. (2011) Reactive oxygen species-dependent cell signaling regulates the mosquito immune response to Plasmodium falciparum. Antioxidant & Redox signaling. (6):943-55. (*these authors contributed equally to this manuscript)
10. Pakpour N, Cheung KW, Souvannaseng L, Concordet JP and Luckhart SL. (2010) Transfection and mutagenesis of target genes in mosquito cells by locked nucleic-acid modified oligonucleotides. J Vis Exp. (46): e2355.
11. Corby-Harris V, Drexler A, Watkins de Jong L, Antonova Y, Pakpour N, Ziegler R, Ramberg F, Lewis EE, Brown JM, Luckhart SL, and Riehle, MA. (2010) A novel strategy for controlling malaria transmission in the mosquito Anopheles stephensi. PLoS Pathogens. 6(7):e1001003.
12. Liu D, Kebaier C, Pakpour N, Beverley SM, Scott P, Uzonna JE. (2009) Leishmania major phosphoglycans influence the host early immune response by modulating dendritic cell functions. Infect Immun. 77(8):3272-83.
13. Pakpour N, Zaph C, Scott P. (2008) CD4+ T cells in Leishmania major are non-polarized and require IL-12 to become Th1 effector cells. J Immunol. 180:8299-8305.
14. Margolis TP, Elfman FL, Leib D, Pakpour N, Apakupakul K, Imai Y, Voytek C. (2007) Spontaneous reactivation of HSV-1 in latently infected murine sensory ganglia. J Virol. 81(20):11069-74.
15. Miller K, Pakpour N, Yi E, Melese M, Alemayehu W, Bird M, Schmidt G, Cevallos V, Olinger L, Chidambaram J, Gaynor B, Whitcher J, Lietman T. (2004) Pesky trachoma suspect finally caught. Br J Ophthalmol. 88 (6):750-1.
16. Massey HC Jr, Nishi M, Chaudhary K, Pakpour N, Lok JB. (2003) Structure and developmental expression of Strongyloides stercoralis fktf-1, a proposed ortholog of daf-16 in Caenorhabditis elegans. Int J Parasitol. 33(13):1537-44.
17. Luo EJ, Pakpour N, Huang EJ. (2001) Control of mouse sensory neuron development by Brn-3a and homeodomain interacting protein kinase 2. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol.60(5):513-513.
Assistant professor Brian Johnson coordinated the winter quarter seminars. He may be reached at brnjohnson@ucdavis.edu for more information.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The T32 Retreat, for Training in Vector Biology, will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 1105 of the Veterinary Medicine Research Facility 3B, located at 1089 Veterinary Medicine Drive.
Peter Billingsley of Sanaria, Inc., a biotechnology company dedicated to the production of a vaccine protective against malaria caused by the pathogen Plasmodium falciparum, will be the keynote speaker, addressing the crowd from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m.
Also scheduled to give a keynote presentation was B. Joseph Hinnebusch of the National Institute of Health’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, but due to the government shutdown, his presentation is cancelled. Filling in for him from 1 to 2 p.m. will be professor Greg Lanzaro of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, director of the T32 training grant, and associate director Shirley Luckhart, professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine.
This year's event is sponsored by the School of Veterinary Medicine, School of Medicine, and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Training Grant in Vector Biology at UC Davis, directed by two UC Davis malaria researchers.
There is no cost for the retreat, but reservations must be made by Oct. 5 with researcher Yoosook Lee at yoosook.lee@gmail.com.
The schedule, as of Friday, Oct. 4:
8:30 to 9:30 a.m.: Coffee
9 to 9:10 a.m.: Welcome by Greg Lanzaro, director of T32 Grant
Vector Biology Research at UC Davis
9:10 to 9:25: Research at the School of Medicine, speaker Shirley Luckhart, associate director of T32 grant
9:25 to 9:40 a.m.: Research at the Center for Vectorborne Diseases (CVEC), speaker CVEC director and research entomologist William Reisen
9:40 to 9:55 a.m.: Research at the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, speaker entomologist Anthony Cornel
9:55 to 10:10 a.m.: Research at the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, speaker entomologist Gregory Lanzaro
10:10 to 10:20: Remarks by Dori Borjesson, chair of UC Davis Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine
10:20 to 10:45: Coffee break
Keynote Presentation 1
10:45 to 11:45: Peter Billingsley of Sanaria, Inc.
Lunch
Keynote Presentation 2
1 to 2 p.m.: Professor Greg Lanzaro of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, School of Veterinary Medicine, director of the T32 training grant, and associate director Shirley Luckhart, professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine. (Due to the government shutdown, the initially scheduled presentation by B. Joseph Hinnebusch of the National Institute of Health’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is cancelled.)
Trainee Presentations
2 to 2:15 p.m.: Laura Norris (studies with Anthony Cornel): "Speciation Island Introgression between Anopheles gambiae forms driven by Insecticide Pressure."
2:15 to 2:30: Bradley Main (studies with Greg Lanzaro): "Ecological Genomics Among Anopheles gambiae Populations in Mali"
2:30 to 2:45 p.m.: Rebecca Ann Elsner (studies with Nicole Baumgarth): "Suppression of B Cell Responses to the Lyme disease agent Borrella burgdoreci"
3:10 to 3:25 p.m. Lattha Souvannaseng (studies with Shirley Luckhart): "Ubiquity of Population-Specific Mutations in the Immune Signaling Genes Among Chromosomal Forms of Anopheles gambiae"
3:25 to 3:40: Elizabeth Glennon (studies with Shirley Luckhart): "The Role of Abscisic Acid in the Mosquito Immune Response to Plasmodium falciparum"
3:40: Closing Remarks, Greg Lanzaro
For more information on the training grant or research, contact Lanzaro at gclanzaro@ucdavis.edu or Luckhart at sluckhart@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
“This is really an intersection of the work we do in my lab and Ed’s expertise in insect behavior,” said Luckhart, a professor in the UC Davis School of Medicine's Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and a graduate student advisor with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
“Jose is very creative and independent – he’s a joy to mentor and undoubtedly will continue to do well in whatever career path he chooses,” Luckhart said.
Lewis, professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will be mentoring Pietri and collaborating in the project.
Pietri, who received a bachelor’s degree in cell biology from UC Davis, expects to receive his doctorate in microbiology in 2015.
The insulin-like family of peptides controls a wide variety of biological functions across the animal kingdom, Pietri explained. “In insects, insulin-like peptides are most commonly known as mediators of behavior. This research project seeks to understand how insulin-like peptides produced during malaria parasite infection affect the behavior of infected mosquitoes. Mosquito behavior during malaria parasite infection can drastically affect transmission to human hosts. As such, the researchers will analyze behaviors including but not limited to feeding, general activity, and temperature seeking in a genetically modified mosquito model. These experiments will determine whether insulin-like peptides play a potential role in increasing malaria parasite transmission to human hosts by altering essential behavioral processes in mosquitoes.
Pietri, who grew up in Roseville and is a 2007 graduate of Granite Bay High School, mentors college undergraduates and high school students and aims for a career in academia. “I chose to obtain my doctoral training in microbiology with the hope that I may one day help to develop novel control and treatment strategies for infectious agents,” Pietri said. “I also have strong interests in teaching and scientific outreach. For this reason, I have devoted a substantial amount of time to mentoring undergraduates and high school students in both the classroom and laboratory. Collectively, these experiences have led me to conclude that my ideal career would be one in which I can not only freely pursue my research interests, but also share my love for the sciences with other.”
This year Pietri was selected the recipient of a UC Davis Professors for the Future Fellowship (PFTF), a year-long competitive fellowship program “designed to recognize and develop the leadership skills of outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who have demonstrated their commitment to professionalism, integrity, and academic service.” Sponsored by Graduate Studies, the program focuses on the future challenges of graduate education, postdoctoral training, and the academy. PFTF Fellows receive a $3,000 stipend.
Pietri is also the recipient of a three-year National Institutes of Health-Predoctoral Fellowship (National Research Service Award), awarded in 2012.
The doctoral student presented his work at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene last November in Atlanta, Ga., and at the Zagava World Malaria Day Symposium, held in April 2013 in Emeryville, Calif.
Pietri has co-authored research papers published in the General and Comparative Endocrinology, Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, and PLoS Pathogens. One is pending in Microbes and Infection.
One of the papers, co-authored with Luckhart and other colleagues, is “Insulin-like Peptides in the Mosquito Anopheles stephensi: Identification and Expression in Response to Diet and Infection with Plasmodium falciparum,” published in the September 2011 edition of General and Comparative Endocrinology.
