Wesley Van Voorhis
University of Washington, WA·Microbiology & Immunology
Two common parasites, Toxoplasma gondii and Cryptosporidium, cause serious disease in vulnerable people, and current drugs work poorly for them. Toxoplasma can damage the brain in people with weak immune systems and can infect a fetus during pregnancy, with no clearly helpful treatment for pregnant women.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Pharmacology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
Toxoplasma gondii
toxoplasmosis
Cryptosporidium
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Develop bumped-kinase inhibitors that block the Toxoplasma enzyme CDPK1 and reach high levels in the brain and fetus while staying safe in pregnancy, using computer predictions and repeated chemistry and testing cycles.
- Define how drug exposure over time relates to treatment success in toxoplasmosis (PK/PD), then test top BKIs in pregnant mouse and pregnant sheep models of congenital toxoplasmosis.
- Design and synthesize new BKIs against Cryptosporidium CDPK1 that avoid known safety problems, testing them in cells, in mice infected with a light-emitting C. parvum strain, and by identifying their metabolites.
- Test new BKI leads in a calf model of cryptosporidiosis and run advanced safety studies on bone, pregnancy and fetal development, and heart effects in rats and dogs.
More about the research
Cryptosporidium causes long-lasting diarrhea that raises death rates and is linked to stunted growth in young children. Both parasites depend on an enzyme called calcium-dependent protein kinase 1 (CDPK1), which they need to enter and grow inside host cells. This work develops bumped-kinase inhibitors (BKIs), drug-like molecules designed to block this parasite enzyme, and moves the best ones toward human testing.
Why it matters
Malnourished children under two in low-resource countries and people with weakened immune systems lack effective treatment for Cryptosporidium diarrhea; the only drug works poorly in them. Pregnant women with new Toxoplasma infections have no clearly helpful therapy to protect the fetus. Safe BKI drug candidates could provide new treatment options for these groups if they succeed in later testing.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
W Todd Lowther
Wake Forest University, NC·Biochemistry
Design and synthesize new compounds based on screening hits to explore the structure–activity relationships of hydroxyproline dehydrogenase (HYPDH) inhibitor scaffolds, improving potency, selectivity and drug-like properties.
Mahmoud Ahmed
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, TX·Pharmacology
Develop new small-molecule inhibitors of the EphB1/2 tyrosine kinases, nerve-signaling enzymes, that are unrelated to tetracyclines, and define the structure–activity features needed for potent inhibition.
Ke Hu
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how the cortical microtubule array, the rib-cage-like scaffold of Toxoplasma gondii, begins its pattern at the apical polar ring, using molecular genetics, microscopy and comparative proteomics.
The school
University of Washington: 81 labs on PI Pages, $1.7B a year on research, 694 research doctorates a year.
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