Hotez Named Chair of Microbiology
and Tropical Medicine
Peter Hotez, MD, PhD has joined GW Medical
Center as chair of the Department of Microbiology and Tropical
Medicine. An internationally recognized medical parasitologist
and tropical disease expert, Dr. Hotez is breaking new ground
in the molecular biology and epidemiology of diseases caused by
parasitic helminths, or worm parasites, and the development of
vaccines that combat them. He heads a department at GWUMC that,
along with substantial ongoing microbiology research projects,
is unique in its scope as it seeks to develop new vaccines and
drugs for previously neglected diseases in developing countries.
According to John F. "Skip" Williams,
MD, MPH, EdD, vice president for health affairs and dean, School
of Medicine and Health Sciences, "Peter Hotez is an outstanding
biomedical researcher who brings further depth to our basic research
program at the GW Medical Center."
Frederick Rickles, MD, associate vice president
for health research, compliance, and technology transfer, added
that "Peter Hotez is engaged in novel research with a global
impact. His appointment is a great choice for GW Medical Center
research in microbiology and the added thrust of tropical medicine."
Dr. Hotez has a background in basic research
as well as clinical infectious diseases. He holds a PhD in biochemical
parasitology from Rockefeller University and an MD from Cornell
University Medical College. Dr. Hotez was a pediatric medical
resident at Massachusetts General Hospital and completed a fellowship
in pediatric infectious diseases in 1991 at Yale University School
of Medicine. He subsequently served there, most recently as associate
professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology and public health.
Hookworm, dengue fever, yellow fever, and malaria-once
identified by the Rockefeller Foundation as the "great neglected
diseases of mankind"- have been the focus of Dr. Hotez's
research. Currently, he is working on a vaccine to combat the
prevalence of hookworm around the world, an ancient scourge that
still affects a billion people globally and almost 200 million
in China alone. Hookworms (genus Ancylostoma) are blood-feeding
parasites that infect people of all ages, but are particularly
devastating in children, draining them of their healthy growth
and vigor. The World Health Organization and World Bank report
that hookworm and allied diseases are leading causes of childhood
and maternal disability in the developing world.
Dr. Hotez is the principal investigator of an
$18 million hookworm vaccine grant received by the Albert B. Sabin
Vaccine Institute of New Canaan, Connecticut from the the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation. The initial research under the grant
is being conducted at the GW Medical Center. Additional funding
for Dr. Hotez's research is from the National Insitutes of Health
(National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), The March
of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, the American Heart Association,
and the China Medical Board of New York.
One promising approach to finding effective
vaccines against infectious agents, according to Dr. Hotez, utilizes
comparative and functional genomics. GWUMC already has established
a research partnership with The Institute for Genomic Research
(TIGR), which is a leader in comparative and functional genomics.
Another GWUMC research partnership that Dr. Hotez will gain is
the Holland Laboratory of the American Red Cross. Both partners
participate in GW's Institute for Biomedical Science, producing
a beneficial collaboration between scientists with access to cutting
edge laboratory facilities. "With all three components here
at GWUMC, we have the makings of a very strong department,"
said Dr. Hotez. "We are all really excited about getting
started."
Dr. Hotez works in rural areas of Asia, where
hookworm infection is greatest, and he has an established a collaboration
with the Institute of Parasitic Diseases in Shanghai, China. Since
China has the largest worm problem on the planet, it is an ideal
place to study the ecology and genetic diversity of the worms,
according to Dr. Hotez. In addition to genetic engineering of
a recombinant vaccine for helminth infections, Dr. Hotez also
directs research toward genetic engineering of new biopharma-ceuticals
from parasitic helminths.
Dr. Hotez is a member of the scientific advisory
boards of the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Foundation and the Charles
H. Hood Foundation, and is council member of the American Society
of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In 1999, he received the prestigious
Henry Baldwin Ward Medal of the American Society of Parasitologists.
He is the co-author of Parasitic Diseases, in its fourth edition,
and Krugman's Infectious Diseases of Children (1998) and he has
been cited in national newspapers and magazines regarding his
hookworm research.
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©
2001 The George Washington University Medical Center
