Department of Molecular and Cell Biology Seminar
“Antimicrobial Peptides in Human Health and Disease”
Michael Zasloff, MD, PhD, Georgetown University
29 April 2014, 2:15 – 3:15 PM
Location
Biology/Physics Building Room 130
About the Speaker
Dr. Michael Zasloff is Professor of Surgery and Scientific Director of the Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute. Dr. Zasloff is known for his groundbreaking work on innate immunity and antimicrobial peptides including the discovery of Magainin from the skin of the African Clawed frog Xenopus laevis, discovery of the first mammalian epithelial antimicrobial peptides, and novel antimicrobial compounds from hagfish and the dogfish shark. Parallel to these discoveries, he has conducted research to understand how antimicrobial compounds are used by the innate immune system, uncovering the mechanisms of disease in cystic fibrosis and Crohn’s disease, and more recently immune rejection in transplanted human small intestine. Through the founding of Magainin Pharmaceuticals he directed the development of therapeutics based on these discoveries through the FDA regulatory process. Since 2004, Dr. Zasloff has been actively engaged in studies of innate immunity within the Transplant Institute of the Department of Surgery at Georgetown University.
For more information, contact: John Malone/MCB at john.malone@uconn.edu