Mireille Kamariza

Last updated
Mireille Kamariza
Born
Bujumbura, Burundi
Alma mater San Diego Mesa College
University of California, San Diego (BS)
University of California, Berkeley (MA)
Stanford University (PhD)
Known forchemical tools, biosensors, point-of-care diagnostics
Scientific career
Thesis The Power of Solvatochromism: Using Environment-sensitive Trehalose Probes to Detect Mycobacteria with Applications in Research and Medicine  (2019)
Doctoral advisor Carolyn R. Bertozzi

Mireille Kamariza is a Burundian-born American bioscientist and an Assistant Professor in the Bioengineering Department at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Previously, Kamariza was appointed as a Harvard Junior Fellow for her postdoctoral studies and she completed her doctoral studies in Biology at Stanford University. Her research considers the development of chemical biosensing tools, low cost point-of-care diagnostics, infectious diseases, and global health. In 2020, she was named as one of Chemical & Engineering News's Talented 12.

Contents

Early life

Kamariza was born in Burundi a few years before the Burundi Civil War. [1] Kamariza became interested in science as a child, and enjoyed reading books about planets. [2] Girls rarely attend college in Burundi, but Kamariza enrolled at a government-managed Catholic school. [3]

During Kamariza's childhood, she often had to move due to the ongoing civil war. Kamariza observed the ravages that infectious diseases such as AIDS and malaria have on already vulnerable populations. But whilst malaria and AIDS receive significant media attention and funding, they are not the most lethal conditions in Africa. In 2015, tuberculosis killed 1.4 million people, considerably more than AIDS, and there is still significant stigma surrounding the disease. [3]

In 2006, Kamariza and her brothers moved to San Diego, California. Together they lived close to San Diego Mesa College, where Kamariza took classes alongside working to support herself. Saloua Saidane, one of her professors, noticed her talent and suggested that she focused on her education. [4] Following Saidane's advice, Kamariza quit her job at Safeway. [3]

Kamariza transferred and completed her bachelor's degree in biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. At UCSD, Kamariza and her colleagues established a peer-to-peer mentoring program that paired transfer students with current UCSD students. Her efforts inspired other initiatives at UCSD, including supporting transfer students in identifying research opportunities. [5] Her impact on UCSD was recognised by her undergraduate dean David Artis, who referred to Kamariza as one of his "all-time favorite students". [2] She was awarded an American Chemical Society (ACS) internship to work at the ACS headquarters. [6]

Education and research

In 2012 Kamariza moved to the University of California, Berkeley, for her graduate studies in cell biology. She applied to join the research group of Carolyn R. Bertozzi. After earning her master's degree, Kamariza joined Stanford University as a graduate student, still working in the Bertozzi laboratory. Here she developed a new point of care diagnostic device for tuberculosis (TB). [7] [8] Tuberculosis is caused by the mycobacterium tuberculosis , a bacterium that has a cell wall so dense that it is difficult for drugs to penetrate. Trehalose is a chemical compound that is found in a range of living organisms that is used by mycobacterium tuberculosis as a scaffold. Kamariza developed DMN-Tre (4-N,N-dimethy-laminonaph-thal-i-mide-trehalose), a molecule that lights up when it is incorporated into the cell walls of mycobacteria. [2] [9] Her research was commercialised, and together with Bertozzi she founded OliLux Biosciences, a company that looks to develop low cost diagnostics for low-income countries. It was awarded a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to test their diagnostic devices in places with high levels of disease. [2] She has tested it with small groups of patients in South Africa. [3] In 2017 Kamariza was selected as one of Fortune magazine 's World's Most Powerful Women. [10]

Kamariza was appointed a Harvard Junior Fellow at Harvard University in 2019. [11] She examines topics regarding precision medicine in global health. [11] She was named one of Chemical & Engineering News's Talented 12 in 2020. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuberculosis</span> Infectious disease

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis. Around 10% of latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kill about half of those affected. Typical symptoms of active TB are chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. It was historically referred to as consumption due to the weight loss associated with the disease. Infection of other organs can cause a wide range of symptoms.

<i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</i> Species of pathogenic bacteria that causes tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, also known as Koch's bacillus, is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis. First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch, M. tuberculosis has an unusual, waxy coating on its cell surface primarily due to the presence of mycolic acid. This coating makes the cells impervious to Gram staining, and as a result, M. tuberculosis can appear weakly Gram-positive. Acid-fast stains such as Ziehl–Neelsen, or fluorescent stains such as auramine are used instead to identify M. tuberculosis with a microscope. The physiology of M. tuberculosis is highly aerobic and requires high levels of oxygen. Primarily a pathogen of the mammalian respiratory system, it infects the lungs. The most frequently used diagnostic methods for tuberculosis are the tuberculin skin test, acid-fast stain, culture, and polymerase chain reaction.

<i>Mycobacterium bovis</i> Species of bacterium

Mycobacterium bovis is a slow-growing aerobic bacterium and the causative agent of tuberculosis in cattle. It is related to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium which causes tuberculosis in humans. M. bovis can jump the species barrier and cause tuberculosis-like infection in humans and other mammals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ziehl–Neelsen stain</span> A type of acid-fast stain

The Ziehl-Neelsen stain, also known as the acid-fast stain, is a bacteriological staining technique used in cytopathology and microbiology to identify acid-fast bacteria under microscopy, particularly members of the Mycobacterium genus. This staining method was initially introduced by Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) and subsequently modified by the German bacteriologists Franz Ziehl (1859–1926) and Friedrich Neelsen (1854–1898) during the late 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuberculosis diagnosis</span>

Tuberculosis is diagnosed by finding Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria in a clinical specimen taken from the patient. While other investigations may strongly suggest tuberculosis as the diagnosis, they cannot confirm it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carolyn Bertozzi</span> American chemist (born 1966)

Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology. She coined the term "bioorthogonal chemistry" for chemical reactions compatible with living systems. Her recent efforts include synthesis of chemical tools to study cell surface sugars called glycans and how they affect diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and viral infections like COVID-19. At Stanford University, she holds the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Bertozzi is also an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and is the former director of the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis</span> Tuberculosis that is resistant to the most effective drugs

Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a form of tuberculosis caused by bacteria that are resistant to some of the most effective anti-TB drugs. XDR-TB strains have arisen after the mismanagement of individuals with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).

Interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) are diagnostic tools for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). They are surrogate markers of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and indicate a cellular immune response to M. tuberculosis if the latter is present.

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

Cord factor, or trehalose dimycolate (TDM), is a glycolipid molecule found in the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and similar species. It is the primary lipid found on the exterior of M. tuberculosis cells. Cord factor influences the arrangement of M. tuberculosis cells into long and slender formations, giving its name. Cord factor is virulent towards mammalian cells and critical for survival of M. tuberculosis in hosts, but not outside of hosts. Cord factor has been observed to influence immune responses, induce the formation of granulomas, and inhibit tumor growth. The antimycobacterial drug SQ109 is thought to inhibit TDM production levels and in this way disrupts its cell wall assembly.

Totally drug-resistant tuberculosis (TDR-TB) is a generic term for tuberculosis strains that are resistant to a wider range of drugs than strains classified as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Extensively drug resistant tuberculosis is tuberculosis that is resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin, any fluoroquinolone, and any of the three second line injectable TB drugs. TDR-TB has been identified in three countries; India, Iran, and Italy. The term was first presented in 2006, in which it showed that TB was resistant to many second line drugs and possibly all the medicines used to treat the disease. Lack of testing made it unclear which drugs the TDR-TB were resistant to.

Kate Carroll is an American professor of chemistry, chemical biology, and biochemistry at Scripps Research in Jupiter, FL, since 2010. She was previously a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

Harriet Mayanja-Kizza, MBChB, MMed, MSc, FACP, is a Ugandan physician, researcher, and academic administrator. She is the former Dean of Makerere University School of Medicine, the oldest medical school in East Africa, established in 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lalita Ramakrishnan</span> Indian-American microbiologist

Lalita Ramakrishnan is an Indian-born American microbiologist who is known for her contributions to the understanding of the biological mechanism of tuberculosis. As of 2019 she serves as a professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Cambridge, where she is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and a practicing physician. Her research is conducted at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where she serves as the Head of the Molecular Immunity Unit of the Department of Medicine embedded at the MRC LMB. Working with Stanley Falkow at Stanford, she developed the strategy of using Mycobacterium marinum infection as a model for tuberculosis. Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including Science, Nature, and Cell. In 2018 and 2019 Ramakrishnan coauthored two influential papers in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) arguing that the widely accepted estimates of the prevalence of latent tuberculosis—estimates used as a basis for allocation of research funds—are far too high. She is married to Mark Troll, a physical chemist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vicki Grassian</span> American chemist

Vicki H. Grassian is a distinguished professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. She also holds the distinguished chair in physical chemistry.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Fortune</span> American phthisiatrit

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References

  1. ↑ Tess Sohngen (July 18, 2017). "Meet the Intrepid Female Scientist from Burundi Fighting the World's Deadliest Disease". Global Citizen. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Esther Landhuis (March–April 2017). "A Faster, Cheaper TB Test". STANFORD magazine.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Esther Landhuis (January 7, 2017). "They Never Told Her That Girls Could Become Scientists". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  4. ↑ Bryan McBournie (2018-02-26). "Mireille Kamariza's Personal Story of Discovery". ACS Axial. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  5. ↑ District, San Diego Community College (November 21, 2017). "Building a bridge to excellence". SDCCD NewsCenter. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  6. ↑ Bryan, McBournie (2018-02-26). "Mireille Kamariza's Personal Story of Discovery". ACS Axial. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  7. ↑ "Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education". vpge.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  8. ↑ Sarah Iqbal (Mar 20, 2018). "An Old TB Detection Test Gets a Much-Needed Makeover". The Wire. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  9. ↑ "Glowing molecule can reveal live tuberculosis bacteria". ScienceDaily. 28 February 2018. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  10. ↑ Claire Zillman (January 9, 2017). "The World's Most Powerful Women: January 9". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  11. 1 2 "Mireille Kamariza, Ph.D." scholar.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
  12. ↑ "C&EN's Talented 12: Mireille Kamariza". Chemical & Engineering News. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
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