Katherine Luzuriaga

Last updated
Katherine Luzuriaga
Born
Bacolod, Philippines
NationalityAmerican
Education
Occupation Medical doctor
Employer University of Massachusetts Medical School
Known for HIV, AIDS research

Katherine Luzuriaga is an American physician and pediatric immunologist who primarily works on HIV/AIDS at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS). She is currently a vice provost at UMMS and the director of the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

Contents

Early life and education

Luzuriaga was born in Bacolod and grew up in the Philippines; she was the second of six children. [1] She majored in biochemistry and earned both her BSc and her MSc from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned her MD from Tufts before completing a pediatrics residency at Tufts Floating Children’s Hospital and fellowship training in adult and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. [2] She cites both her parents in her decision to become a medical doctor: her father was an engineer who taught her a love of science and math and her mother was a nurse. [1]

Career

In 1990, Luzuriaga joined the facility of UMMS. She has served as the division chief of pediatric infectious diseases and later became the founding director of the medical school's Office of Global Health. In 2012, she became the director for Center for Clinical and Translational Science, focusing on viral infections in children. [3]

In 2021, Luzuriaga was in consideration to be named commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration. [4]

Luzuriaga has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, as well as a member of the Institute of Medicine. [5]

HIV/AIDS research

In 1991, Luzuriaga worked on the team performing pediatric clinical trials for the drug nevirapine; she and the team were the first to observe the suppression of HIV proliferation within infected cells. [6]

In 2013, Luzuriaga contributed to a trial that "functionally cured" a newborn of AIDS that had been transmitted from the mother during birth. [7] Working alongside Dr. Deborah Persaud, the team demonstrated that a two-year old treated with antiretroviral drugs "no longer has detectable levels of virus using conventional testing despite not taking HIV medication for 10 months". [8]

COVID-19

In 2021, Luzuriaga headed up a study at UMMS testing the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccination in children aged 6 months to 11 years old. [9] Luzuriaga was the principal investigator for the study, called KidCOVE. [10]

In 2022, Luzuriaga led a study testing the efficacy and safety of paxlovid in children aged 6–12. Luzuriaga described having a medication against COVID-19 in kids was "crucial". [11]

Awards and honors

In 1997, Luzuriaga was awarded the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. [12]

In April 2013, Luzuriaga was included on Time Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World for her work on preventing AIDS from being transmitted to newborn babies. [13] [14]

In December 2013, Luzuriaga was named to the list of Foreign Policy's 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2013 for “bringing the world closer to a cure for HIV.” [15]

Related Research Articles

The UMass Chan Medical School is a public medical school in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is part of the University of Massachusetts system. It consists of three schools: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. The school also operates a biomedical research enterprise and a range of public-service initiatives throughout the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nevirapine</span> Chemical compound

Nevirapine (NVP), sold under the brand name Viramune among others, is a medication used to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, specifically HIV-1. It is generally recommended for use with other antiretroviral medications. It may be used to prevent mother to child spread during birth but is not recommended following other exposures. It is taken by mouth.

Elizabeth Glaser was an American AIDS activist and child advocate married to actor and director Paul Michael Glaser. She contracted HIV very early in the AIDS epidemic after receiving an HIV-contaminated blood transfusion in 1981 while giving birth. Like other HIV-infected mothers, Glaser unknowingly passed the virus to her infant daughter, Ariel, who died in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation</span> Non-profit organization in the USA

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs. Founded in 1988, the organization works in 12 countries around the world.

This is a timeline of HIV/AIDS, including but not limited to cases before 1980.

amfAR Nonprofit AIDS research organization

amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, known until 2005 as the American Foundation for AIDS Research, is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of AIDS-related public policy.

UMass Memorial Health (UMM Health) is a non-profit healthcare network based in Worcester, Massachusetts, operated by the University of Massachusetts and primarily serving Central Massachusetts. It is the largest health system in Central Massachusetts, and is the clinical partner of the UMass Chan Medical School.

Deborah Persaud is a Guyanese-born American virologist who primarily works on HIV/AIDS at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

The Mississippi baby is a Mississippi girl who in 2013 was thought to have been cured of HIV. She had contracted HIV at birth from her HIV-positive mother. Thirty hours after the baby was born, she was treated with intense antiretroviral therapy. When the baby was about 18 months old, the mother did not bring the child in for scheduled examinations for the next five months. When the mother returned with the child, doctors expected to find high levels of HIV, but instead the HIV levels were undetectable. The Mississippi baby was thought to be the other person, after the "Berlin patient," to have been cured of HIV. As a result, the National Institutes of Health planned to conduct a worldwide study on aggressive antiretroviral treatment of newborn infants of mothers with HIV infections. It was thought that aggressive antiretroviral therapy on newborn infants might be a cure for HIV. On July 10, 2014, however, it was reported that the child was found to be infected with HIV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenda Gray</span> South African researcher

Glenda Elisabeth GrayMB BCh, FC Paeds, DSc (hc), is a South African physician, scientist and activist specializing in the care of children and in HIV medicine. In 2012, she was awarded South Africa's highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver). She became the first female president of the South African Medical Research Council in 2014, was recognized as one of the "100 Most Influential People" by Time in 2017 and was listed amongst "Africa's 50 Most Powerful Women" by Forbes Africa in 2020. Her research expertise involves developing microbicides for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV vaccines.

Terri H. Finkel is an American pediatric rheumatologist and immunologist who is the Children's Foundation of Memphis Endowed Chair and tenured professor of pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Previously, she was the pediatrician-in-chief, chair of pediatrics and chief scientific officer at Nemours Children's Hospital. She is known for her research into autoimmunity, AIDS, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and cancer. Her work has been recognized in more than 200 publications, 10 U.S. patents, and 4 licensed technologies. Finkel has been placed in the top one percent of American pediatric rheumatologists by U.S. News & World Report. Her numerous honors include being named among America's Top Doctors by Castle Connolly every year since 2011 and induction into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.

Hydeia Loren Broadbent was an American HIV/AIDS activist who advocated through appearances in national media and as a spokesperson for related foundations.

Michael Green was an American molecular biologist and cell biologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was the chair of the Department of Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology, director of the UMass Cancer Center, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Green was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

Dhayendre Moodley is a South African medical researcher and Associate Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has worked as an investigator in Phase II and III international clinical trials exploring antiretroviral regimens to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child.

Yvonne "Bonnie" Maldonado is an American physician, pediatrician, and Professor of Pediatrics and of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University, with a focus on Infectious Diseases. She founded Stanford's pediatric HIV Clinic and now serves as Stanford University School of Medicine's Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Diversity.

Catherine Wilfert was an American pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases. She became a professor at Duke University School of Medicine and known internationally for her work in pediatric HIV prevention. After 1993, using zidovudine during pregnancy led to an estimated reduction of mother-to-infant transmission of HIV in the United States by 75 percent and a 47 percent decrease in new HIV infections globally.

Prasanna Nair is an Indian-born doctor working in the United States. She works in primary health care with a specialty in pediatric endocrinology.

Ligia Peralta is a Dominican-born doctor of pediatrics and adolescent medicine in Maryland. Her research focuses on HIV and the transmission of HIV in adolescents, specifically those from under-served communities.

James M. Oleske is an American pediatrician and HIV/AIDS researcher who is the emeritus François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Professor of Pediatrics at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey. He is best known for his pioneering work in identifying HIV/AIDS as a pediatric disease, and treating and researching it beginning in the 1980s. He published one of the first articles identifying HIV/AIDS in children in JAMA in 1983 and was a co-author of one of the articles by Robert Gallo and others identifying the virus in Science in 1984.

Mary Goretti Boland, MSN, RN, FAAN is a Pediatric Nurse and Doctor of Public Health, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She is nationally known for her work developing innovative healthcare programs for underserved children with HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases. In 1978, Boland staffed an innovative mobile health screening van for the Ironbound Community Health Project in Newark, New Jersey. She became director of the AIDS program at Children's Hospital of New Jersey and served as the coordinator for the Children's AIDS program (CHAP) at United Hospitals Medical Center in Newark. She served on the AIDS Advisory Committee in New Jersey and the National AIDS Advisory Committee. The United States Department of Health and Human Services gave her an award for her work in pediatric AIDS/HIV treatment.

References

  1. 1 2 Lugay, Elton (17 July 2013). "Bacolod-born scientist one of Time Magazine's most influential people". GmaNetwork.com. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  2. ↑ "PI and Director". University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School . Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  3. ↑ Welker, Grant (16 April 2021). "UMass Medical School vice provost a candidate to lead FDA". WbJournal.com. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  4. ↑ Moulton, Cyrus (16 April 2021). "Report: UMass Med Vice Provost Katherine Luzuriaga considered for top FDA post". Telegram & Gazette . Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  5. ↑ "Inter-CFAR Collaboration on HIV Research in Women". University of Washington . Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  6. ↑ Anderson, Rebecca J (23 January 2014). Nevirapine and the Quest to End Pediatric AIDS. McFarland & Company. p. 34. ISBN   9781476613840 . Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  7. ↑ "Asian Pacific American Healthcare Heroes". RiverSideOnline. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  8. ↑ "Toddler "functionally cured" of HIV infection, NIH-supported investigators report" (Press release). National Institutes of Health. 4 March 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  9. ↑ Moulton, Cyrus (18 May 2021). "Moderna's 'sweet spot': UMass Medical School seeking kids for Moderna vaccine study". Telegram & Gazette . Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  10. ↑ Spencer, Susan E.W.; Willey, Sarah. "COVID vaccine trial for kids on track, says KidCOVE principal investigator at UMass Chan". University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School . Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  11. ↑ "Trial site in Massachusetts to test Paxlovid in kids". WCVB-TV . 13 September 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  12. ↑ "Notable Asian/Pacific American Physicians in U.S. History". American Board of Internal Medicine. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  13. ↑ Dybul, Mark (18 April 2013). "The 2013 TIME 100". Time . Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  14. ↑ Lugay, Elton (26 April 2013). "Fil-Am scientist, who helped find a cure for HIV baby, among TIME's most influential people". Philippine Daily Inquirer . Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  15. ↑ Larson, Lisa M. (12 December 2013). "Foreign Policy names Luzuriaga a 'Leading Global Thinker of 2013' for HIV research". University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School . Retrieved 5 May 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.