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Dr. Michael Pollastri Receives $2.7 Million from NIH to Develop Sleeping Sickness Drug

Sleeping Sickness affects nearly 500,000 people annually in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to approximately 60,000 deaths each year. Transmitted by the bite of an inflected tsetse fly, it is fatal if untreated and there is urgency about "translating" laboratory research in this area into clinical trials that could lead to effective drugs.

With funding from the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Mike Pollastri and his collaborator, Dr. Robert Campbell at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole are investigating new compounds as promising therapeutics for Sleeping Sickness and other neglected diseases. Their goal in this 5-year effort is to develop compounds that display a high level of inhibition of two enzymes that are required by the parasites. Guided by previous results from drug discovery programs that have targeted the human version of these enzymes, the investigators will develop new compounds that target these parasitic enzymes in order to (1) confirm that their inhibition by small molecule drugs leads to parasite death, and (2) produce new drugs for advancement into clinical studies for this disease.

Dr. Mike Pollastri (Photo courtesy of Ms. Sally Moy)

March 2009