The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) recently announced the recipients of its fellowships for the 1999-2000 season. NFID offers the fellowships in support of its mission to support research into the causes, cures, and prevention of infectious diseases; to encourage and sponsor public and professional education programs; and to aid in the prevention of infectious diseases. The purpose of the fellowships is to encourage men and women to train as specialists and to conduct research in infectious diseases.

Christopher F. Carpenter, MD, is the recipient of the 1999 John P. Utz Postdoctoral Fellowship in Medical Mycology, which is co-sponsored by NFID and Pfizer Inc.

This award is named in honor of John P. Utz, MD, president emeritus of NFID. Dr. Utz served as dean of the Georgetown University School of Medicine, was chief of immunology and infectious diseases at the Medical College of Virginia, and prior to that was chief of the infectious disease service at the National Institutes of Health. A well-known and respected physician, Dr. Utz, now retired, devoted his work to mycology.

Dr. Carpenter's research will focus on the detection of the yeast Candida albicans in blood. Candida albicans and other yeasts can cause infections in certain high risk hosptialized patients. According to Dr. Carpenter, the ability to detect these infections in the blood lags behind the ability to detect most bacterial bloodstream infections. "We are developing an assay that combines the capture of the yeast in blood using an antibody and subsequent extraction, amplification and detection of its DNA. Once our assay is optimized, we will compare its ability to detect Candida albicans with that of routine blood cultures in a clinical trial," he explained. His objective is to increase the ability to detect these infections in high-risk patients, with the ultimate goal of earlier directed therapy and improved clinical outcome.

Dr. Carpenter will conduct his research in the Medical Microbiology Lab at the Johns Hopkins University Division of Infections Diseases in Baltimore and will be mentored by William Metz, PhD, professor of Pathology.

Dr. Carpenter is currently a fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He completed his residency and internship at Duke University Medical Center and received his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

Larean D. Brandon, PhD, is the first recipient of the Colin L. Powell Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship in Tropical Disease Research, sponsored by NFID, Glaxo Wellcome Inc. and the Foundation for Microbiology.

This award is named in honor of General Colin L. Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the 1998 recipient of the NFID's Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind.

The fellowship will allow Dr. Brandon to study the characteristics of the molecular mechanisms of unipolar, surface localization of Shigella IcsA. Shigella is a cause of dysentery and severe diarrhea and leads to an estimated 650,000 deaths each year. Shigella is unique in that it uses host cytoskeleton as a means for dissemination through the cells of the colon.

"The goal of this project is to characterize the molecular mechanism of expression, secretion and unipolar, surface localization of IcsA," sates Dr. Brandon. "I have developed both generic and biochemical approaches to achieve these aims. During the course of these studies I have isolated two proteins that may be involved in the secretion and/or unipolar targeting of IcsA."

Marcia B. Goldberg, MD, associate professor, Harvard Medical School in Boston will serve as Dr. Brandon's mentor during her research year.

Prior to her fellowship, Dr. Brandon was an associate in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She received both her masters and doctoral degrees in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Chicago.

The 1999 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Emerging Infectious Diseases has been awarded to Mary Catherine McEllistrem, MD, This fellowship is co-sponsored by NFID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Merck & Co., Inc

During her fellowship year, Dr. McEllistrem will pursue the epidemiology of drug resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae infection in HIV-infected patients living in the Baltimore metropolitan area using the Maryland Bacterial Invasive Surveillance project (BIDS). BIDS is the Active Bacterial Core Surveillance (ABCs) component of the CDC-funded Maryland Emerging Infections Program (EIP). This high risk population does not respond well to the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, and the availability of the pneumococcal protein conjugate vaccines will have an enormous public health impact. "While some research has shown that the serotypes implicated in invasive disease in this high-risk group is limited, the studies were often limited to one hospital or city, not a population-based evaluation of an entire region," explained Dr. McEllistrem. She continued, "By serotyping the pneumoccal isolates which are implicated in invasive disease, and subtyping those isolated in patients with recurrent pneumococcal disease, a better understanding of the epidemiology of the disease in HIV infection can be gained. If possible, I will begin a vaccine study to determine whether the pneumococcal protien conjugate vaccine has improved immunogencity in HIV-infected patients on highly-active anti-retro viral therapy compared to the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine."

Lee H. Harrison, MD, principal investigator of the Maryland EIP will serve as Dr. McEllistrem's mentor during the fellowship and Robert Pinner, MD, will be her CDC supervisor.

Dr. McEllistrem is currently a fellow in the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public, Department of Epidemiology. She received her medical degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

With her award of the 1999 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Nosocomial Infection Research and Training, co-sponsored by NFID and Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc., Susan K. Seo, MD, will investigate the increased rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York.

Nosocomial infections prolong hospital stays, increase re-hospitalization rates, and significantly increase health care costs. MRSA is an important nosocomial pathogen associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The current prevalence is twenty to twenty-five percent in US hospitals. The goal of Dr. Seo's research is to study all MRSA isolates saved since December, 1998, with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) in order to determine if the increased rate can be attributed to patient-to-patient transmission. According to Dr. Seo, MSKCC has seen a dramatic increase in the incidence of MRSA from 5.2%-7.56% in the early 1990s to 13.2% in 1998 despite vigilant infection control efforts. "Molecular typing, including PFGE, is an excellent adjunct to traditional infection control and laboratory investigation," states Dr. Seo. "Results from typing may allow distinction between person-to-person spread versus community acquisition."

While conducting her research at MSKCC, Dr. Seo will have both Kent A. Sepkowitz, MD, FACP, associate chairman, Department of Medicine and Donald Armstrong, MD, attending physician, MSKCC serving as her mentors.

Dr. Seo completed her residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She received her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

During his research year as recipient of the 1999 Fellowship in Infectious Diseases, co-sponsored by NFID and Glaxo Wellcome Inc., Gregory M. Anstead, MD, PhD will investigate the mechanisms of visceralization in leishmaniasis. Transmitted by the bite of an infected sandfly, visceral leishmaniasis causes enlargement of the liver and spleen, as well as depletion of bone marrow resulting in wasting and immunodeficiency. Victims of the disease often die from secondary infections. About a half-million cases of visceral leishmaniasis occur per year in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America where malnutrition is prevalent.

Successful defense against leishmaniasis requires coordinated interaction between macrophages and lymphocytes, the white blood cells that send chemical signals to the macrophages, explained Dr. Anstead.

"(I) propose that this immature macrophage population with deficient adhesion may be carrying living parasites from the skin to the liver and spleen", stated Dr. Anstead. He hopes to discover the defects in the immune system produced by malnutrition that cause the spread of the parasite from the skin to the internal organs.

Dr. Anstead will conduct his research at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Peter C. Melby, MD, associate professor of Medicine and Microbiology will serve as his mentor.

Dr. Anstead is currently a third-year fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center. He completed his residency and internship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington and received his medical degree and PhD from the University of Illinois Medical School and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, respectively.