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November 13, 2009. Students in UND's course, Developing Health Networks in Rare and Neglected Diseases (BIOS60570) attended class with Drs. Terrie Taylor and Karl Seydel. Dr. Taylor, an Osteopathic Physician, is the University Distinguished Professor of internal medicine in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University and the Director of Pediatric Malaria Research at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre Malawi. Karl Seydel , M.D., Ph.D. works with Dr. Taylor in Malawi and is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University 's Department of Internal Medicine, College of Osteopathic Medicine. Drs. Taylor and Seydel discussed their research and clinical work in Malawi with children who have developed cerebral malaria, a syndrome with a 15-20% mortality rate. Dr. Taylor's groundbreaking exploration of the pathogenesis of cerebral malaria in children through autopsy studies is enabling the study of stage-specific sequestration patterns in individuals with parasitemia. Dr. Seydel engaged students with stories about his current work and career path. Dr. Taylor's lecture, "Malaria: cerebral disease and fever," was the seventh lecture in the CRND's Clinical Translational Seminar Series (CTS). Above: Dr. Terrie Taylor, Dr. Kasturi Haldar and Ms. Jenny Shin. Below: Dr. Karl Seydel and the class. (Photos: Will Wall, 2009) |
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The Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases
Science for Society
Around the globe, people are suffering and dying from diseases that have generally been ignored by major pharmaceutical companies because the potential financial rewards for developing new drugs and vaccines to treat them are insignificant. These are the rare and neglected diseases of the world. There are tens of thousands of rare diseases, typically defined as those, which afflict less than 200,000. Among them are cystic fibrosis, thalassemia, Niemann-Pick C disease, and several of the rare forms of cancer. Neglected diseases, by contrast, can affect billions, but like their rare counterparts, have been ignored by researchers. This is especially prevalent in the developing world and in pockets of grinding poverty in developed nations, where the populations suffering from illnesses such as tuberculosis, malaria, and lymphatic filariasis do not have the money to buy drugs and vaccines, giving pharmaceutical companies little incentive to develop treatments that cost far more than could ever be recouped through reasonable prescription prices. The result is a gaping hole in healthcare—one which Notre Dame is uniquely positioned to fill.
Rare Diseases: those which afflict less than 200,000. Examples are cystic fibrosis, thalassemia, Niemann-Pick C Disease, adrenolekodistrophy and several forms of cancer.
Neglected Diseases: diseases of poverty, lymphatic filariasis disease pathologies of TB and Malaria.
Where We Are:
University of Notre Dame- College of Science
Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases
Galvin Life Science Building
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Email at: crnd@nd.edu
Phone (574) 631-3372
Fax (574) 631-9788
