Conor Caffrey
Conor R. Caffrey, PhD, a parasitologist and biochemist in the UCSF Department of Pathology, has been cited by
Scientific American magazine for one of the top 50 achievements in business, policy and research for the year 2007.
Caffrey was singled out for his contribution to developing an experimental therapy to treat schistosomiasis, a flatworm disease that afflicts more than 200 million people in predominantly tropical and subtropical countries.
Caffrey and his colleagues at UCSF's
Sandler Center for Basic Research in Parasitic Diseases showed that a small molecule, known as K77, kills worms and decreases disease pathology in a mouse model of schistosomiasis. K77 binds to and inactivates cysteine proteases, demonstrating the essential nature of these enzymes for the growth and survival of the parasite.
"The research is very much an ongoing, collaborative effort involving many dedicated partners within and outside of the Sandler Center," says Caffrey. The Sandler Center is a philanthropically funded institution at UCSF. Its mission is to develop drugs for the world's most neglected tropical diseases, including schistosomiasis, Chagas' disease and sleeping sickness.
Caffrey emphasizes that the present research is just a first step in what will be a long and expensive process of developing a drug suitable for humans. "This process is made all the more difficult by the relative lack of investment in developing drugs to treat the very poor," says Caffrey. "Profits are nil or marginal at best. Nonetheless, I hope that the award will raise public awareness about tropical parasitic diseases and the desperate need for new drugs to treat them."
