Personaje del mes de enero

La Dra Pamela Pennington se encuentra a cargo del Laboratorio de Chagas. 

Activa y muy tenaz, transmite su experiencia y conocimiento a sus estudiantes y colaboradores, promoviendo la actividad científica e invitando a involucrarse más seriamente en los proyectos relacionados con el área de la salud en Guatemala.

Colaboradores Lab de Chagas

Pamela M. Pennington Aycinena de Sánchez

Telephone:                            (502) 2369-0791 Ext. 538

Fax:                                        (502) 2369-7539

E-mail address:                    pmpz@cdc.gov

Education

1998       Ph.D., Microbiology, University of Texas

                Health Science Center at San Antonio

1991       B.S. Biology, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas

Positions

2004-2005            Member of the National Commission on Biotechnology for the National Council for

Science and Technology, Guatemala

2005-                     Professor, Biochemistry Department, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala

 City, Guatemala

2002-                     Researcher at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala

2002-2003            Post-doctoral Fellow at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

2001-2002            Research associate and associate professor at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala

1998-2001            Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA

Scientific Publications

P. Pennington and C.B. Beard (2004) Care, maintenance and handling of infected triatomines. In, B.J. Beaty and W.C. Marquardt (eds.) Biology of disease vectors. 2^nd ed.  University Press of  Colorado.  p717-725

C.B. Beard, E.M. Dotson, P.M. Pennington, S. Eichler, C. Cordon-Rosales, R.V. Durvasula (2001). Bacterial symbiosis and paratransgenic control of vector-borne Chagas disease. International Journal of Parasitology 31:621-7.

P. M. Pennington, D. Cadavid, J. Bunikis, S.J. Norris, A.G. Barbour (1999).  Extensive interplasmidic duplications change the virulence phenotype of the relapsing fever agent Borrelia turicatae. Molecular Microbiology 34:1120-1132.

P. M. Pennington, D. Cadavid, A. G. Barbour (1999). Characterization of VspB of Borrelia turicatae, a major outer membrane protein expressed in blood and tissues of mice. Infection and Immunity 67: 4637-45.

D. Cadavid, P. M. Pennington, T. A. Kerentseva, S. Bergstrom, A. G. Barbour (1997). Immunologic and genetic analyses of VmpA of a neurotropic strain of Borrelia turicatae. Infection and Immunity. 65:3352-3360.

P. M. Pennington, C. D. Allred, C. S. West, R. Alvarez, A. G. Barbour (1997).  Arthritis severity and spirochete burden are determined by serotype in the Borrelia turicatae-mouse model of Lyme disease.  Infection and Immunity.  65:285-292.

W.H. Stone, D.G. Saphire, S.M. Hackleman, A.M. Braun, P. Pennington, J. Scheffler, J.C. Wigle, A.B. Cox (1994).  Effect of radiation and age on immunoglobulin levels in Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta).  Radiation Research. 138: 401-408.

Scholarships and Awards

2003  -  Awarded a World Health Organization (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) grant for the study “Assessing the role of T. dimidiata and R. prolixus in the sympatric transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi in Guatemala”.

2001  -  Awarded a World Health Organization (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) grant for the study “Genetic variability of Trypanosoma cruzi as a determinant of myocardial tropism”.

2001  -  Awarded a World Health Organization (Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) grant for the study “Molecular genetic analysis of Triatoma dimidiata dispersal patterns from domiciliated and potential sylvatic foci in Guatemala”. 

2000  -  Awarded a Gorgas Memorial Institute Research Award for the study “Assessing the role of T. dimidiata and R. prolixus as vectors of Chagas disease in Central America”

2000  -  Awarded a CDC scholarship to continue work on Chagas disease.

2000  -  Appointed as the American Society for Microbiology Ambassador to Central America.

1999  -  Awarded a scholarship to attend a course on the Biology of Disease Vectors in Manaus, Brazil.

1998 - Awarded an NCID (National Centers for Infectious Disease) post-doctoral fellowship by the American Society for Microbiology.

1996 - Recipient of the Florence Terry Griswold Scholarship.  This is a scholarship given to a Latinamerican woman who is working on a graduate degree at a State University in Texas.

1992 -  Nominated for the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi at The University of Texas at Austin.  This honor society honors those students of good character who have excelled in scholarship in any field.

1991 -  Awarded The University Scholarship at The University of Texas at Austin.  This is a scholarship given to a few students with outstanding scholastic achievements.

Abstracts

Abstracts presented at the 2004 American Society for Microbiology meeting in New Orleans, LA, USA:

Ø       Potential of the house fly, Musca domestica, as a vector of transgenic symbionts of Rhodnius prolixus, a Chagas disease vector

Ø       Symbiotic potential of the bacterial flora of domestic triatomine vectors of Central America

Ø       Identification of Two Major Strains of Trypanosoma cruzi Involved in Distinct Domestic Transmission Cycles in the North and South of Guatemala using Newly Developed Microsatellite Markers

Insect specificity of transformed bacterial formulation for Chagas disease control, presented at the 2004 Pew meeting on Biotech Bugs.

“Bacterial symbionts and the control of Chagas disease” at the 2000 American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Houston, T.X.

“Re-evaluating the Risk of Trypanosoma cruzi transmission by Triatoma dimidiata and Rhodnius prolixus” at the 1999 American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Washington, D.C.

"A surface protein of Borrelia turicatae  is associated with severe arthritis in a SCID mouse model of Lyme disease" at the 1995 Arthritis Foundation Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

Invited Lectures

2000 – “Bacterial symbionts and the control of  Chagas disease” at the International Congress of Entomology at Iguassu Falls, Brazil

1998 - "Switching of Vsp genes and disease phenotype by extensive DNA rearrangements in Borrelia turicatae" at the Gordon Conference on Spirochetes in Ventura, California

1996 -"The Borrelia turicatae Mouse Model of Lyme Disease: Disease Severity is Determined by Serotype”  at the Pathogenesis of Lyme Disease Symposium during the VII International Congress on Lyme Borreliosis in San Francisco, California.

1996 -"Borrelia turicatae in the mouse: a model to study brain invasion by spirochetes" during a visit at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, France.

1995 - "Borrelia turicatae in the mouse: a model to study host-spirochete interactions" at a symposium on the Role of the Laboratory in Understanding the Natural History of Disease, during the 45th annual Southwest Conference on Diseases in Nature Transmissible to Man in San Antonio, Texas.