PACEMAKER: Winter 2005-06

Research

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Genome sequencing strikes blow against Third World poverty A major international scientific effort, which included a biochemist from the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, has sequenced the genomes of three related parasites that collectively cause death and illness among millions of people every year. The genome sequences and analyses were presented in a special issue of the journal Science published July 15, 2005. The information described a "milestone" in the centuries-old fight against poverty. "We hope knowledge of these genomic sequences will lead to future development of new drugs or vaccines against these three pathogens and to better ways of controlling the devastating diseases they cause in underdeveloped countries," says John Donelson, Ph.D., professor and head of biochemistry. There are no vaccines. The few available drug treatments for these parasitic diseases often are ineffective and even toxic. Because the pathogens primarily affect the world's poorest people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, they also place enormous burdens on already fragile economies. Donelson, who authored two papers in the special issue of Science, and his colleagues have been studying the three parasites, Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi, and Leishmania, for nearly 20 years.