Will travel across India in 2014-2015 to fight parasitic disease.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: University of Illinois medical professor Dr. Ramaswamy Kalyanasundaram has been named as a recipient of the Fulbright Award for 2014.
Kalyanasundaram is the head of the department of biomedical sciences, professor of microbiology and immunology, and assistant dean for research at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford. His main area of research is in lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic infection that affects the lower limbs and other body parts of human beings, often leading to devastating long-terms effects like amputation.
With his new grant from the Fulbright US Scholar Program, Kalyanasundaram will travel to high-risk villages across India during the 2014-2015 academic year. During his travels, he will conduct extensive surveys of infection areas within India, and will work alongside officers from the World Health Organization (WHO) to conduct disease testing and talk about prevention measures.
For over ten years, Kalyanasundaram has been working on a vaccine to treat the roughly 1.4 million people who suffer from lymphatic filariasis around the world. While the exact amount of Kalyanasundaram’s grant was not disclosed by Fulbright, his trip to India will be facilitated by J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the US Department of State.
Originally from India, Kalyanasundaram holds a B.S. in Zoology, an MVSc (Masters in Veterinary Sciences) in Veterinary Parasitology, and a Ph.D. in Immunology. He also holds a DVM (Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine), and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Cornell University.
Under Kalyanasundaram’s gene mining project, which he oversees at his lab in Rockford, Kalyanasundaram and his colleagues have “identified more than 40 new functional genes from schistosomes and filarial organisms.” He has two patents to his name, at least 102 publications as an author or co-author, and is a member of several organizations, including the Indian Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology.
The Fulbright Awards was established by former US Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas in 1946. Since then, it has given grants to over 318,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, scientists and other professionals to give them “the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.”
1 Comment
Thanks Deepak for the nice article. A minor correction, I have 102 publications. We are working towards getting a vaccine for this infection.