Dr. Nathan Schmidt, assistant professor of microbiology, will wrap up the UT Science Forum’s Fall 2013 speaker series this Friday, Nov. 22, with a presentation titled “A ‘Sweet’ Approach to Treating Malaria.”
The parasite that causes malaria has proven to be a mighty challenge and has evaded essentially all experimental vaccines. It is currently a global health crisis. Approximately 50 percent of the world’s population lives in malaria-endemic regions. Around one million people die from malaria annually.
While anti-malarial drugs have been effective at treating infected individuals, drug-resistance is a common problem and they do not prevent re-infection. Consequently, new approaches are desperately needed to treat this disease.
Dr. Schmidt will discuss his current research, which is aimed at treating malaria through probiotics and dietary supplementation with sucralose.
The UT Science Forum takes place Fridays at 12 p.m. in the Thompson-Boling Arena Café, Rooms C-D. The 40-minute presentation is followed by a Q&A session. The Science Forum is free and open to the public.