Structure-Guided Drug Design for Cryptosporidiosis

Every year, 200,000 children die from a disease you might have never heard of: Cryptosporidiosis. It is a gut infection, caused by a parasite, Cryptosporidium, which is related to malaria. It leads to death from diarrhea, especially in malnourished infants and toddlers in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries. Millions of children surviving Cryptosporidiosis experience poor neuro-development and growth stunting. This leads to a lifetime of lost potential for millions. Cryptosporidiosis currently has no effective drug to treat those malnourished children. We used atomic level information about a protein drug target for Cryptosporidium to design a safe and effective drug against Cryptosporidiosis for these children. We are currently completing the final studies for Investigative New Drug status and hope to be in human trials by 2027. By the end of the presentation, the viewer should be able to: 1. Recognize the burden of Cryptosporidiosis worldwide, and the need for therapeutics, 2. Demonstrate how structure-guided drug design can help eliminate toxicities from drug candidates, and, 3. Assess testing for Cryptosporidiosis, and how a test and a drug might be combined in the US and in LMIC Wesley C Van Voorhis, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Adjunct Professor of Global Health and Microbiology, Director, Center for Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (CERID), Univ. of Washington 05/06/2026 The University of Washington is committed to ensuring digital accessibility in our services, programs, and activities. If you encounter accessibility barriers using videos found on this channel, please contact UW Video at uwvideo [at] uw [dot] edu.