Jane M. Carlton

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Jane M. Carlton is a biologist at Johns Hopkins University whose research centers on two groups of single-celled parasites: those which cause malaria (the genus Plasmodium ), and trichomonads, which include the common sexually transmitted parasite Trichomonas vaginalis . She is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Malaria Genomics and Public Health. She holds primary appointments in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, a department shared by the Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine. She is also the director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. [1]

Contents

Education

Carlton received her Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences (genetics) and her Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. [2] She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology at the University of Edinburgh, and was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida. [1]

Career

Carlton began her career as an assistant scientist in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She worked at the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Institutes of Health and the Institute for Genomic Research (now called the J. Craig Venter Institute) before joining the faculty at New York University as an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Parasitology in 2006. [3] From 2009 until 2011, Carlton served as director of the Genome Technology Center at NYU. She later also held an appointment as a professor in the Department of Biology as well as faculty director of genomic sequencing in the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, and in 2013, became director of the center. In 2018, she was named the Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver, and Enid Silver Winslow Professor of Biology. Silver Professors are named by NYU and chosen in recognition of their accomplishments and commitment to undergraduate education. [4] In 2020, Carlton additionally joined the faculty in the School of Global Public Health at NYU as a professor of epidemiology.

In 2010, Carlton established and served as founding director for the Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in India (CSCMi), one of 10 National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMRs). The CSCMi partners with local researchers, clinicians, and public health workers to develop knowledge, tools, and evidence-based strategies to support Indian malaria intervention and control programs and to build malaria research capacity in India. [1] [5]

In 2023, Carlton left NYU to join Johns Hopkins University as director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. [3] [6] In 2024, she was named a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor. [1]

Research

Carlton is among a group of scientists recording and categorizing changes in all of the malaria parasite's genes at once, with a view toward detecting drug resistance in its earliest stages while it can still be controlled, finding new vulnerabilities in the parasite's genome that can be exploited to fight malaria. [7] As Faculty Director of Genomic Sequencing at NYU's Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, Carlton is examining the genomes of dozens of malaria isolates at a time. Recently her group sequenced several genomes from both a human malaria species (Plasmodium vivax) [8] and a closely related monkey malaria parasite ( Plasmodium cynomolgi ), [9] producing a more detailed picture of malaria evolution and uncovering a surprising amount of genetic variation in the latter.

Carlton collaborates with scientists at National Institute of Malaria Research in India to develop new research paths and control strategies for the disease there. As Program Director of a seven-year NIH International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research based jointly in New Delhi and NYU, she heads the first pan-Indian genomic survey of malaria parasite strains, along with an in-depth epidemiological study of how the malaria is transmitted and manifests itself in different ecologies and societies in India. [10]

Trichomonads are single-celled parasites that infect humans and other mammals as well as birds. One such parasite is Trichomonas vaginalis , which causes the most widespread non-viral human STD). Carlton led the group that sequenced the genome of Trichomonas vaginalis in 2007 – the first sequencing of any trichomonad genome – and uncovered families of genes that may be responsible for the membrane irritation and damage associated with trichomoniasis. [11] [12] The sequencing project also revealed that the parasite's genome is surprisingly large and composed mostly of highly repetitive ‘mobile’ DNA elements.

Awards and honors

Carlton was the recipient of the Stoll-Stunkard Memorial Lectureship Award from the American Society of Parasitologists in 2010. [13] [14]

She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012. [15]

In 2018, Carlton was named a Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver, and Enid Silver Winslow Professor in the Department of Biology at New York University. [4]

In 2024, Carlton was named an Honorary Fellow by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, [16] the highest honor the School can bestow, in recognition "for her outstanding contributions to malaria research." [17]

Publications

Selected highly cited publications:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trichomoniasis</span> Medical condition

Trichomoniasis (trich) is an infectious disease caused by the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis. About 70% of affected people do not have symptoms when infected. When symptoms occur, they typically begin 5 to 28 days after exposure. Symptoms can include itching in the genital area, a bad smelling thin vaginal discharge, burning with urination, and pain with sex. Having trichomoniasis increases the risk of getting HIV/AIDS. It may also cause complications during pregnancy.

<i>Plasmodium</i> Genus of parasitic protists that can cause malaria

Plasmodium is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of Plasmodium species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a vertebrate host during a blood meal. Parasites grow within a vertebrate body tissue before entering the bloodstream to infect red blood cells. The ensuing destruction of host red blood cells can result in malaria. During this infection, some parasites are picked up by a blood-feeding insect, continuing the life cycle.

<i>Trichomonas vaginalis</i> Species of parasite that causes sexually transmitted infections

Trichomonas vaginalis is an anaerobic, flagellated protozoan parasite and the causative agent of a sexually transmitted disease called trichomoniasis. It is the most common pathogenic protozoan that infects humans in industrialized countries. Infection rates in men and women are similar but women are usually symptomatic, while infections in men are usually asymptomatic. Transmission usually occurs via direct, skin-to-skin contact with an infected individual, most often through vaginal intercourse. The WHO has estimated that 160 million cases of infection are acquired annually worldwide. The estimates for North America alone are between 5 and 8 million new infections each year, with an estimated rate of asymptomatic cases as high as 50%. Usually treatment consists of metronidazole and tinidazole.

<i>Trichomonas</i> Genus of parasitic, flagellated protists

Trichomonas is a genus of anaerobic excavate parasites of vertebrates. It was first discovered by Alfred François Donné in 1836 when he found these parasites in the pus of a patient suffering from vaginitis, an inflammation of the vagina. Donné named the genus from its morphological characteristics. The prefix tricho- originates from the Ancient Greek word θρίξ (thrix) meaning hair, describing Trichomonas’s flagella. The suffix -monas, describes its similarity to unicellular organisms from the genus Monas.

<i>Plasmodium vivax</i> Species of single-celled organism

Plasmodium vivax is a protozoal parasite and a human pathogen. This parasite is the most frequent and widely distributed cause of recurring malaria. Although it is less virulent than Plasmodium falciparum, the deadliest of the five human malaria parasites, P. vivax malaria infections can lead to severe disease and death, often due to splenomegaly. P. vivax is carried by the female Anopheles mosquito; the males do not bite.

<i>Plasmodium ovale</i> Species of single-celled organism

Plasmodium ovale is a species of parasitic protozoon that causes tertian malaria in humans. It is one of several species of Plasmodium parasites that infect humans, including Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax which are responsible for most cases of malaria in the world. P. ovale is rare compared to these two parasites, and substantially less dangerous than P. falciparum.

<i>Plasmodium malariae</i> Species of single-celled organism

Plasmodium malariae is a parasitic protozoan that causes malaria in humans. It is one of several species of Plasmodium parasites that infect other organisms as pathogens, also including Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, responsible for most malarial infection. Found worldwide, it causes a so-called "benign malaria", not nearly as dangerous as that produced by P. falciparum or P. vivax. The signs include fevers that recur at approximately three-day intervals – a quartan fever or quartan malaria – longer than the two-day (tertian) intervals of the other malarial parasite.

<i>Plasmodium knowlesi</i> Species of single-celled organism

Plasmodium knowlesi is a parasite that causes malaria in humans and other primates. It is found throughout Southeast Asia, and is the most common cause of human malaria in Malaysia. Like other Plasmodium species, P. knowlesi has a life cycle that requires infection of both a mosquito and a warm-blooded host. While the natural warm-blooded hosts of P. knowlesi are likely various Old World monkeys, humans can be infected by P. knowlesi if they are fed upon by infected mosquitoes. P. knowlesi is a eukaryote in the phylum Apicomplexa, genus Plasmodium, and subgenus Plasmodium. It is most closely related to the human parasite Plasmodium vivax as well as other Plasmodium species that infect non-human primates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Salzberg</span> American biologist and computer scientist

Steven Lloyd Salzberg is an American computational biologist and computer scientist who is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University, where he is also Director of the Center for Computational Biology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaria Atlas Project</span> Academic group

The Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) is a nonprofit academic group led by Peter Gething, Kerry M Stokes Chair in Child Health, at the Telethon Kids Institute, Perth, Western Australia. The group is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with previous funding also coming from the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. MAP aims to disseminate free, accurate, and up-to-date information on malaria and associated topics, organised on a geographical basis. The work of MAP falls into three areas:

<i>Anopheles sinensis</i> Species of mosquito

Anopheles sinensis is a species of mosquito that transmits malaria as well as lymphatic filariasis. It is regarded as the most important vector of these human parasitic diseases in Southeast Asia. It is the primary vector of vivax malaria in many regions. In China it also transmits the filalarial parasite, and arthropod roundworm. In Japan it is also a vector of a roundworm Setaria digitata in sheep and goats.

Yagya Dutta Sharma is an Indian molecular biologist, professor and head of the department of biotechnology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi. An elected fellow of all three major Indian science academies — Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Sciences, India — Sharma is known for his research on the molecular biology of malaria. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for his contributions to medical sciences in 1994.

Patricia Jean Johnson is an American microbiologist.

Mary R. Galinski is a professor of medicine at the Emory Vaccine Center, Hubert Department of Global Health of the Rollins School of Public Health, and the Department of Medicine of the Emory University School of Medicine.

Wai-Hong Tham is a Malaysian professor at the University of Melbourne and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), and joint head of the division of Infectious Disease and Immune Defense. She researches the molecular biology of the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax.

Joseph Michael Vinetz is a Professor of Medicine and Anthropology at Yale University, Research Professor at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and Associate Investigator of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute of Tropical Medicine at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.

Aditya Prasad Dash, who hails from the Indian State of Odisha, is an Indian biologist with special interest in malaria and vector borne diseases. His areas of interest include biomedical science, transmission biology of tropical disease, and modern biology of disease vectors. According to Vidwan, the national network for researchers and experts, Dash has authored 320 publications co-authored 699 publications. Since September 2020, Dash has been serving as the Vice Chancellor of Asian Institute of Public Health (AIPH) in Bhubaneswar. Before joining AIPH, he was the Vice Chancellor of Central University of Tamil Nadu during the period from August 2015 to August 2020. He had also worked at the World Health Organization (WHO) as the Regional Advisor for the South-East Region. He has also worked as the Director of the National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), New Delhi, of the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar and of the National Institute for Research on Tribal Health, Jabalpur.

Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena is a Brazilian-American molecular entomologist. He is a professor in the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2002, his team loaded mosquitoes with a modified gene so that their guts produce a substance that kills off Plasmodium.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Weder, Annika (2024-05-28). "Leading geneticist and parasitologist Jane Carlton named Bloomberg Distinguished Professor". The Hub - Johns Hopkins University . Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  2. ↑ "Jane Carlton". World Science Festival . Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  3. 1 2 "Leading researcher Jane Carlton joins malaria research institute as director". The Hub - JHU.edu. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 2023-08-18. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  4. 1 2 "The Silver Professors". as.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  5. ↑ "Center for the Study of Complex Malaria in India (CSCMI) - Jane Carlton Lab". malariacenterindia.org. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  6. ↑ "Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health". publichealth.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  7. ↑ "Malaria Vaccine to be Reality soon". Only My Health. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  8. ↑ Neafsey DE, Galinsky K, Jiang RH, Young L, Sykes SM, Saif S, Gujja S, Goldberg JM, Young S, Zeng Q, Chapman SB, Dash AP, Anvikar AR, Sutton PL, Birren BW, Escalante AA, Barnwell JW, Carlton JM. The malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax exhibits greater genetic diversity than Plasmodium falciparum. Nat Genetics. 2012 Sep;44(9):1046-50.
  9. ↑ Tachibana S, Sullivan SA, Kawai S, Nakamura S, Kim HR, Goto N, Arisue N, Palacpac NM, Honma H, Yagi M, Tougan T, Katakai Y, Kaneko O, Mita T, Kita K, Yasutomi Y, Sutton PL, Shakhbatyan R, Horii T, Yasunaga T, Barnwell JW, Escalante AA, Carlton JM, Tanabe K. Plasmodium cynomolgi genome sequences provide insight into Plasmodium vivax and the monkey malaria clade. Nat Genetics. 2012 Aug 5;44(9):1051-5.
  10. ↑ "NIH Funds Seven International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research | News Release". National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
  11. ↑ "Scientists Sequence Genome of Parasite Responsible for Common Sexually Transmitted Infection | News Release". National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 2007-01-11.
  12. ↑ Carlton JM, Hirt RP, Silva JC, Delcher AL, Schatz M, Zhao Q, Wortman JR,Bidwell SL, Alsmark UC, Besteiro S, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Noel CJ, Dacks JB, Foster PG, Simillion C, Van de Peer Y, Miranda-Saavedra D, Barton GJ, Westrop GD, Müller S, Dessi D, Fiori PL, Ren Q, Paulsen I, Zhang H, Bastida-Corcuera FD, Simoes-Barbosa A, Brown MT, Hayes RD, Mukherjee M, Okumura CY, Schneider R, Smith AJ, Vanacova S, Villalvazo M, Haas BJ, Pertea M, Feldblyum TV, Utterback TR, Shu CL, Osoegawa K, de Jong PJ, Hrdy I, Horvathova L, Zubacova Z, Dolezal P, Malik SB, Logsdon JM Jr, Henze K, Gupta A, Wang CC, Dunne RL, Upcroft JA, Upcroft P, White O, Salzberg SL, Tang P, Chiu CH, Lee YS, Embley TM, Coombs GH, Mottram JC, Tachezy J, Fraser-Liggett CM, Johnson PJ. Draft genome sequence of the sexually transmitted pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis. Science. 2007 Jan 12; 315(5809):207-12.
  13. ↑ "The American Society of Parasitologists". Journal of Parasitology. 96 (6): 1048–1057. 2010-12-01. doi:10.1645/GE-2597.1. ISSN   0022-3395. S2CID   198156410.
  14. ↑ "Stoll-Stunkard Memorial Lectureship". www.amsocparasit.org. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  15. ↑ "AAAS Members Elected as Fellows". AAAS - The World's Largest General Scientific Society. 2012-11-30. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  16. ↑ "Jane Carlton Receives Honorary Fellowship from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health". publichealth.jhu.edu. 2024-03-08. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
  17. ↑ "LSHTM Honorary Fellowships go to outstanding research and university leaders | LSHTM". www.lshtm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-28.
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