Alan Cowman

Last updated

Alan Cowman
Born
Alan Frederick Cowman

(1954-12-27) 27 December 1954 (age 69) [1]
Alma mater Griffith University (BSc) [1]
University of Melbourne (PhD)
Scientific career
Fields Malaria
Microbiology
Parasitology [2]
Institutions Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
University of California, Berkeley
Thesis Genes of the protozoan parasite Babesia bovis  (1983)
Doctoral advisor David J. Kemp [3]
Website wehi.edu.au/people/alan-cowman

Alan Frederick Cowman AC, FRS, [4] FAA, CorrFRSE, FAAHMS, FASP, FASM (born 27 December 1954) is an internationally acclaimed malaria researcher [5] whose work specialises in researching the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and the molecular mechanisms it uses to evade host responses and antimalarial drugs. [6] As of May 2024, he is the deputy directory and Laboratory Head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, and his laboratory [7] continues to work on understanding how Plasmodium falciparum, infects humans and causes disease. [1] [8] He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 2011 and awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia in 2019 for his "eminent service to the biological sciences, notably to molecular parasitology, to medical research and scientific education, and as a mentor." [9]

Contents

Education

Cowman was awarded his Bachelor of Science (honours) from Griffith University in 1979 and received his PhD from WEHI and the University of Melbourne in 1984, with David Kemp as his supervisor. His PhD thesis involved the cattle parasite Babesia bovis : in conjunction with other students they developed cloning, immunochemical and recombinant DNA techniques to analyze the parasite. [3] [10] This was followed by two postdoctoral projects and further exploring the malaria parasite at WEHI. He then took up a postdoctoral position to study Drosophila at the University of California, Berkeley in 1984. [11] [3] He was awarded an honorary doctorate from QUT university in Brisbane, Australia in 2020. [12]

Career

Cowman returned to WEHI in 1986, and concentrated his research on genes that make malaria parasites resistant to drugs. [3] In 1999 he was appointed head of the division of infection and immunity, [11] a position which he held until he was appointed deputy director of WEHI in 2015. He also holds honorary professorships with the University of Melbourne and Harvard University.[ citation needed ]

Cowman's work has been supported by a senior principal research fellowship from the NHMRC since 2018, a Wellcome Trust Australian senior research fellowship in 1988, then by three successive international research scholarships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He held an Australia fellowship from 2007 to 2012. [13]

His research focus has been on protozoan infections, in particular the cause of malaria ( Plasmodium falciparum ), which kill over 400,000 people each year world-wide. [14] He made significant advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms which the malaria parasites use to take over human cells, [15] [16] and how they evade the body's natural defenses. He found that once malaria parasites take over human red blood cells, and remodels them so they can reproduce without triggering the patient's immune system. He also investigated how the parasites build resistance to antimalarial drugs. [4] These two lines of research have helped to guide the development of new drugs, supplemented by his team's monitoring the spread of drug resistance strains. [11] He also conducts research into the genetic properties of the parasite, and he was the first researcher to develop a live genetically attenuated vaccine of P. falciparum. [4]

Publications

Cowman has published extensively: as of January 2023, Google Scholar listed over 350 of his papers, and 48,669 citations of his works. Google Scholar calculated his h-index as 124, [17] while Scopus gave it as 91. [2] [18]

Honours and awards

1993 Gottschalk Medal for Medical Science and Biology from the Australian Academy of Science [19]
1994 ASBMB Boehringer-Mannheim Medal [11]
1998 Glaxo Award for Advanced Research in Infectious Diseases [20]
2001 Centenary Medal awarded by the Australian government [21]
2001 Fellow, Australian Academy of Science [22]
2006 Lemberg Medal awarded by the Australian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology [11]
2010 Howard Taylor Ricketts Medal from the University of Chicago [23]
2010 Glaxo-Wellcome Australia Medal [11]
2010-2014 president, World Federation of Parasitology [22]
2011 Fellow of The Royal Society [4]
2013 Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation, Victorian Government and veski [22]
2013 Mahathir Science Award, Mahathir Science Award Foundation, Malaysia [24]
2014 Award for Research Excellence from the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists [25]
2016 Wellcome Trust grant for development of antimalarial drugs with Merck & Co., Inc. [22]
2016 Research Excellence Award from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) recognising outstanding performance and excellence in health and medical research innovation. [26]
2019 Fellow, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) [27]
2019 Companion of the Order of Australia [9]
2020 Corresponding Fellow, The Royal Society (Edinburgh)

Professional activities

Professional societies

Australia Society for Parasitology

Australian Society for Microbiology

Australian Academy of Science

The Royal Society (United Kingdom)

Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)

Selected international and national committees

2010–14 president, World Federation of Parasitologists

2010, 2015, 2020 member, quinquennial review committee, Welcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK

2013 chair, 'Target identification for malaria drug discovery' Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2013-                    

2013-2022 member, appointments and promotion committee QIMR Berghofer, Queensland, Australia

2014 fellow appointment panel, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Washington, USA

2015 Malaria Eradication Scientific Alliance, chair of working group, Boston, USA

Related Research Articles

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artemisinin</span> Group of drugs used against malaria

Artemisinin and its semisynthetic derivatives are a group of drugs used in the treatment of malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum. It was discovered in 1972 by Tu Youyou, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her discovery. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are now standard treatment worldwide for P. falciparum malaria as well as malaria due to other species of Plasmodium. Artemisinin is extracted from the plant Artemisia annua a herb employed in Chinese traditional medicine. A precursor compound can be produced using a genetically engineered yeast, which is much more efficient than using the plant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WEHI</span> Medical research institute in Victoria, Australia

WEHI, previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for his work in immunology, was director from 1944 to 1965. Burnet developed the ideas of clonal selection and acquired immune tolerance. Later, Professor Donald Metcalf discovered and characterised colony-stimulating factors. As of 2015, the institute hosted more than 750 researchers who work to understand, prevent and treat diseases including blood, breast and ovarian cancers; inflammatory diseases (autoimmunity) such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease; and infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and hepatitis B and C.

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

Proguanil, also known as chlorguanide and chloroguanide, is a medication used to treat and prevent malaria. It is often used together with chloroquine or atovaquone. When used with chloroquine the combination will treat mild chloroquine resistant malaria. It is taken by mouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Hilton</span> Australian molecular biologist

Douglas James Hilton is an Australian molecular biologist. He is the CEO of CSIRO and immediate past Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. His research has focused on cytokines, signal transduction pathways and the regulation of blood cell formation (hematopoiesis). Hilton was the President of the Association of the Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) from 2014-16.

Chetan Eknath Chitnis is an Indian scientist in the field of malaria research. He is the head of the Malaria Parasite Biology and Vaccines Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (2009) as well as Indian National Science Academy (2014). He received the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award in 2004 and the Infosys Prize in Life Sciences 2010. Chitnis is the former principal investigator of the malaria research group at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi.

Russell J. Howard is an Australian-born executive, entrepreneur and scientist. He was a pioneer in the fields of molecular parasitology, especially malaria, and in leading the commercialisation of one of the most important methods used widely today in molecular biology today called “DNA shuffling" or "Molecular breeding", a form of "Directed evolution".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Crabb</span> Australian scientist (born 1966)

Brendan Scott CrabbFASM is an Australian microbiologist, research scientist and director and chief executive officer of the Burnet Institute, based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Visvader</span> Australian academic

Jane Visvader is a scientist specialising in breast cancer research who works for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She is the joint head of the Breast Cancer Laboratory with Geoff Lindeman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leann Tilley</span> Australian biochemist and microbiologist

Leann Tilley is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Trager</span>

William Trager was an American parasitologist, professor at Rockefeller University, and member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Trager's research focused on developing microbiological culture systems for a variety of eukaryotic pathogens. He is best known for developing a culture system for the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum with James Jensen in the 1970s.

David James Kemp OAM FAA was an Australian plant geneticist and parasitologist.

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.

Deepak Gaur was an Indian molecular biologist, and a professor at the School of Biotechnology of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Known for his studies on Plasmodium falciparum, Gaur is a recipient of the N-Bios Prize. 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, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to medical sciences in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdoulaye Djimdé</span>

Abdoulaye Djimdé is an associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology in Mali. He works on the genetic epidemiology of antimalarial drug resistance and is a Wellcome Sanger Institute International Fellow. He is Chief of the Molecular Epidemiology and Drug Resistance Unit at the University of Bamako Malaria Research and Training Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth A. Winzeler</span> American microbiologist

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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erinna Lee</span> Singaporean molecular biologist

Erinna Lee is a Singaporean molecular biologist specializing in apoptosis and autophagy.

Sanjeev Krishna,, is a British physician and parasitologist whose research focuses on affordable diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, Ebola, African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, and colorectal cancer. Krishna is Professor of Medicine and Molecular Parasitology at St George's, University of London and St George's Hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David A. Fidock</span>

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Anon (2013). "Cowman, Prof. Alan Frederick" . Who's Who (online Oxford University Press  ed.). Oxford: A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U257471.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. 1 2 Alan Cowman publications indexed by Google Scholar
  3. 1 2 3 4 Sherman, Irwin (2011). Reflections on a century of malaria biochemistry. Academic Press. pp. 79–80. ISBN   9780080921839.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "AlanCowman – Royal Society". Royalsociety.org. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  5. Research, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical (10 June 2019). "Queen's Birthday honours for malaria scientist, philanthropist and board member". WEHI. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  6. "Alan Cowman". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  7. "Alan Cowman-Lab team". The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. 3 November 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  8. "Professor Alan Cowman". WEHI. Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  9. 1 2 "Professor Alan Frederick Cowman – Award Extract". honours.pmc.gov.au. Australian Government Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 10 June 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2019. For eminent service to the biological sciences, notably to molecular parasitology, to medical research and scientific education, and as a mentor.
  10. Angus, Beverley Margaret (1998). Tick fever and the cattle tick in Australia 1829-1996. Dept. of Primary Industries. p. 471. ISBN   9780724267606.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Alan Cowman". ASBMB. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  12. Technology (QUT), Queensland University of. "Honorary doctorates". QUT. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  13. "Alan Cowman". 1st Malaria World Congress. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  14. "Study maps malaria parasite giving hope for vaccine". news.am. NEWS.am Medicine.
  15. Mark, David (4 February 2010). "Protein 'ushers' key to beating malaria". AM. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  16. Cowman, Alan F.; Crabb, Brendan S.; Simpson, Richard J.; Koning-Ward, Tania F. de; Pearce, J. Andrew; Kapp, Eugene A.; Patsiouras, Heather; Gilson, Paul R.; Günther, Svenja; Hodder, Anthony N.; Boddey, Justin A. (February 2010). "An aspartyl protease directs malaria effector proteins to the host cell". Nature. 463 (7281): 627–631. Bibcode:2010Natur.463..627B. doi:10.1038/nature08728. ISSN   1476-4687. PMC   2818761 . PMID   20130643.
  17. "Alan F. Cowman". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  18. Alan Cowman publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  19. "Gottschalk Medal | Awardees". science.org.au. Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  20. "Alumni Members | GSK Award for Research Excellence". au.gsk.com. Glaxo Smith Kline Australia. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  21. "Professor Alan COWMAN – Award Extract". honours.pmc.gov.au. Australian government: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 1 January 2001. Retrieved 10 June 2019. For service to Australian society and science in medical research
  22. 1 2 3 4 "Alan Cowman-Achievements". Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. 3 November 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  23. "Malaria researcher wins Howard Taylor Ricketts award". EurekAlert! press release. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  24. "Professor Alan Cowman wins Malaysian science award". Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. 30 October 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  25. "FAOBMB Award for Research Excellence". FAOBMB – Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists and Molecular Biologists Inc. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  26. "2016 Research Excellence Award". nhmrc.gov.au. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  27. "Academy elects new Fellows and discusses global pandemic threat at annual meeting". AAHMS – Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.