Center takes aim at infectious diseases that plague developing nations

Artemisinin is the most effective-and expensive-antimalarial drug on the market. Berkeley professor of chemical engineering and CEND faculty affiliate Jay Keasling is bioengineering bacteria to synthesize the drug and make it more affordable. Photo credit: Scott Bauer For much of the world, death comes couched in an everyday event: a cough, an insect bite, lovemaking with an unfaithful partner. From these ordinary incidents, millions of people every year contract HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. These "big three" killers, plus a dozen other neglected diseases such as river blindness and dengue fever, place a terrible medical and economic burden upon the people of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Yet vaccines and treatments for many of these diseases do not exist. Bringing new drugs to market is extremely... [read full story]