Joseph Michael Vinetz | |
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Occupation(s) | Medical expert, academic and researcher |
Awards | Bailey K. Ashford Medal, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Fellow, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Fellow, American College of Physicians Fellow, Infectious Diseases Society of America |
Academic background | |
Education | B.S., Yale University M.D., University of California, San Diego |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Yale School of Medicine Cayetano Heredia University Rajarata University of Sri Lanka |
Joseph Michael Vinetz is a Professor of Medicine and Anthropology at Yale University, [1] 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. [2]
Vinetz has focused his research on infectious diseases,including general infectious diseases and tropical diseases. He has specific research interests and accomplishments spanning basic science to field work in the areas of malaria,brucellosis and leptospirosis. [3]
Vinetz studied at Yale College,majoring in Biology and History of Science &Medicine in 1985. He received his medical degree from the University of California,San Diego (UCSD) in 1991,and completed his residency in internal medicine in 1994 and a fellowship in infectious diseases in 1998 at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. During this time period,he was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Physician Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health. [1]
Vinetz joined the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1998 as assistant professor and then as Associate Professor of Pathology and of Medicine till 2003. In 2003,he moved to the University of California,San Diego (UCSD) as associate professor,and was promoted to Professor with tenure in 2007. In 2010,he held appointment as Research Professor and Principal Investigator at Department of Molecular and Cellular,and as Associate Researcher at Alexander von Humboldt Institute of Tropical Medicine at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. [2] He joined Yale University School of Medicine as a Professor of Medicine in 2018 and later on was appointed to a secondary appointment as Professor of Anthropology in the Yale University Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2020. [1]
He also had clinical appointments,as attending physician at University of Texas Medical Branch Health from 1998 to 2003,and at University of California San Diego Medical Center from 2003 to 2018. In 2020,he held a brief appointment as attending physician with disaster privileges related to COVID-19 at Yale New Haven Hospital. He is an attending physician at VA Medical Center,West Haven. [4]
Vinetz's work is focused on vaccinology,in tropical infectious diseases,encompassing mechanistic molecular biology,biochemistry,immunology and cell biology approaches to the translational research of malaria, [5] leptospirosis and brucellosis.
Vinetz's research in global health and infectious diseases takes a large scale,public health and epidemiological perspective—from Peru,Brazil,and Sri Lanka—focused on public health issues of highest consequence,while simultaneously pursuing translational research from the bench to the bedside,with a key focus on vaccine development. [3]
Vinetz found cases of severe leptospirosis in relation to environmental exposure and social inequity in Baltimore in the 1990s,which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 1996. He caught rats in Baltimore and showed that nearly all were chronically infected by L. interrogans. In this way he led epidemiologic investigation to determine the epidemiology of patients with leptospirosis who acquired L. interrogans in inner-city Baltimore. He found out a risk element in context of urban residents who were sporadically exposed to rat urine in the inner city as inner-city rats were seemed to carry L. interrogans. [6] A paper published in 2003 discussed the worldwide occurrence and spread rate of leptospirosis,and highlighted pulmonary hemorrhage with refractory shock as a major manifestation. Furthermore,he concurred with published recommendations to use tetracyclines and β—lactam/cephalosporins as mainstays of the treatment of leptospirosis. [7]
In 2005,Vinetz demonstrated the underdiagnosis of leptospirosis in the Amazon jungle of Peru (Iquitos city,Loreto department),a region of high endemicity and the underrecognition of grave pulmonary complications,and discovered the pulmonary involvement in leptospirosis in urban but not rural areas related to the leptospiral strains found in the environment. [8] He also drew a comparative analysis between the levels of Leptospira in urban and rural environmental surface waters in sites in the Peruvian Amazon region of Iquitos. Findings of his study indicated urban severe leptospirosis in the Peruvian Amazon to be associated with higher concentrations of more pathogenic leptospires at sites of exposure and transmission. He proposed the application of this risk assessment of environmental surface waters in terms of evaluating risk for leptospiral infection and severe disease in leptospirosis-endemic regions. [9] Furthermore,he conducted a study in 2004 focused on the potential relationships of environmental context to human exposure to Leptospira and disease associated with seroconversion. [10]
Vinetz led an international consortium of leptospirosis researchers that led to a paper in which 310 strains of Leptospira were analyzed whole genome sequencing. A cross-species comparative genome analysis of all 22 species known at the time produced the first definitive phylogeny of Leptospira,along with identification of novel virulence factor genes and gene families,towards the goal of addressing broad questions of how pathogen virulence evolves. [11]
Vinetz has active research programs which comprise wide-ranging investigations of Plasmodium biology and malaria epidemiology. Vinetz has focused on mechanisms of parasite-mosquito interactions,immunology of blood stage malaria,and transmission-blocking vaccine development,including,in collaboration with Stephen Mayfield at UCSD,the use of recombinant algae to produce P. falciparum and P. vivax vaccine candidates. He studies endemic malaria in the context of the Peruvian Amazon region of Iquitos and discussed the emergence of chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum and the marked increase in the incidence of P. vivax malaria as significant factors in highlighting malaria control as a major priority of Peruvian public health efforts. [12]
In 2014,Vinetz explored a protein-conjugate approach to develop a monoclonal antibody-based antigen detection test regarding the diagnosis of human brucellosis. [13] He also used systems immunology to study the serial kinetics of the antibody response against the complete brucella melitensis ORFeome in context of focal vertebral brucellosis,while presenting a case of focal vertebral brucellosis in a 71-year-old Mexican-American woman who contracted infection from unpasteurized goat milk. He is the first to determine the kinetics of the human antibody responses in terms of complete repertoire of proteins encoded by a bacterial genome and to highlight fundamentally different immunopathogenetic mechanisms between acute human brucellosis and chronic human brucellosis. [14]
Vinetz along with co-authors published a paper in 2016 and explored the effect of demographic history and selective pressures in context of the P. vivax genome by sequencing 182 clinical isolates sampled from 11 countries across the globe,using hybrid selection to overcome human DNA contamination. [15] He also conducted a microarray analysis of ex vivo Plasmodium vivax,which provided a data set regarding the comparative analysis with a potential for identifying markers for global parasite diversity and drug resistance mapping studies. [16]
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever,tiredness,vomiting,and headaches. In severe cases,it can cause jaundice,seizures,coma,or death. Symptoms usually begin ten to fifteen days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. If not properly treated,people may have recurrences of the disease months later. In those who have recently survived an infection,reinfection usually causes milder symptoms. This partial resistance disappears over months to years if the person has no continuing exposure to malaria.
Leptospirosis is a blood infection caused by the bacteria Leptospira that can infect humans,dogs,rodents and many other wild and domesticated animals. Signs and symptoms can range from none to mild to severe. Weil's disease,the acute,severe form of leptospirosis,causes the infected individual to become jaundiced,develop kidney failure,and bleed. Bleeding from the lungs associated with leptospirosis is known as severe pulmonary haemorrhage syndrome.
Recrudescence is the revival of material or behavior that had previously been stabilized,settled,or diminished. In medicine,it is usually defined as the recurrence of symptoms after a period of remission or quiescence,in which sense it can sometimes be synonymous with relapse. In a narrower sense,it can also be such a recurrence with higher severity than before the remission. "Relapse" conventionally has a specific meaning when used in relation to malaria.
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.
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.
Leptospira is a genus of spirochaete bacteria,including a small number of pathogenic and saprophytic species. Leptospira was first observed in 1907 in kidney tissue slices of a leptospirosis victim who was described as having died of "yellow fever".
Tafenoquine,sold under the brand name Krintafel among others,is a medication used to prevent and to treat malaria. With respect to acute malaria,it is used together with other medications to prevent relapse by Plasmodium vivax. It may be used to prevent all types of malaria. It is taken by mouth.
A malaria vaccine is a vaccine that is used to prevent malaria. The only approved malaria vaccine is RTS,S,known by the brand name Mosquirix. As of April 2022,the vaccine has been given to 1 million children living in areas with moderate-to-high malaria transmission. It requires at least three doses in infants by age 2,with a fourth dose extending the protection for another 1-2 years. The vaccine reduces hospital admissions from severe malaria by around 30%.
Leptospira interrogans is a species of obligate aerobic spirochaete bacteria shaped like a corkscrew with hooked and spiral ends. L. interrogans is mainly found in warmer tropical regions. The bacteria can live for weeks to months in the ground or water. Leptospira is one of the genera of the spirochaete phylum that causes severe mammalian infections. This species is pathogenic to some wild and domestic animals,including pet dogs. It can also spread to humans through abrasions on the skin,where infection can cause flu-like symptoms with kidney and liver damage. Human infections are commonly spread by contact with contaminated water or soil,often through the urine of both wild and domestic animals. Some individuals are more susceptible to serious infection,including farmers and veterinarians who work with animals.
Pregnancy-associated malaria (PAM) or placental malaria is a presentation of the common illness that is particularly life-threatening to both mother and developing fetus. PAM is caused primarily by infection with Plasmodium falciparum,the most dangerous of the four species of malaria-causing parasites that infect humans. During pregnancy,a woman faces a much higher risk of contracting malaria and of associated complications. Prevention and treatment of malaria are essential components of prenatal care in areas where the parasite is endemic –tropical and subtropical geographic areas. Placental malaria has also been demonstrated to occur in animal models,including in rodent and non-human primate models.
RTS,S/AS01 is a recombinant protein-based malaria vaccine. It is the only malaria vaccine approved and in wide use. As of April 2022,the vaccine has been given to 1 million children living in areas with moderate-to-high malaria transmission,with millions more doses to be provided as the vaccine's production expands. It requires at least three doses in infants by age 2,with a fourth dose extending the protection for another 1-2 years. The vaccine reduces hospital admissions from severe malaria by around 30%.
Jonathan James Juliano is an American physician/scientist. He currently works at UNC School of Medicine.
Leptospira broomii is a species of Leptospira isolated from humans with leptospirosis. The type strain is 5399T.
Sanaria is a biotechnology company developing vaccines protective against malaria and other infectious diseases as well as related products for use in malaria research. Sanaria's vaccines are based on the use of the sporozoite (SPZ) stage of the malaria parasite,Plasmodium, as an immunogen,and as a platform technology for liver-vectored gene delivery. SPZ are normally introduced into humans by mosquito bite where they migrate to the liver and further develop to liver stages,and eventually back into the blood stream where the parasite infects red blood cells (RBC) and causes malaria. Plasmodium falciparum is the species responsible for more than 95% deaths caused by malaria. The WHO estimates there were 241 million clinical cases and 627,000 deaths in 2020 alone.
Plasmodium cynomolgi is an apicomplexan parasite that infects mosquitoes and Asian Old World monkeys. In recent years,a number of natural infections of humans have also been documented. This species has been used as a model for human Plasmodium vivax because Plasmodium cynomolgi shares the same life cycle and some important biological features with P. vivax.
Dyann F. Wirth is an American immunologist. She is currently the Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
William Erle "Bill" Collins was an American parasitologist.
Elizabeth Ann Winzeler is an American microbiologist and geneticist. She is a professor in the Division of Host-Microbe Systems and Therapeutics of the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. Although she works in a variety of different disease areas,most research focuses on developing better medicines for the treatment and eradication of malaria.
Dionicia Gamboa is a Peruvian parasitologist and professor at Institute of Tropical Medicine Alexander von Humboldt,Cayetano Heredia University. Her research focusses on Plasmodium vivax, a major malaria parasite species in South America.
Stephen L. Hoffman is an American physician-scientist,tropical medicine specialist and vaccinologist,who is the founder and chief executive and scientific officer of Sanaria Inc.,a company dedicated to developing PfSPZ vaccines to prevent malaria.