Spring/Summer 2013 Aesculapian Magazine - University of Georgia ...

11
CollegeNews
Harn’s
Lifesaving
Worms
...............
Story and photos by
Stephanie Schupska
Donald Harn picks up
a pint-sized jar of
tapeworms sitting at the front
of his desk. The specimens of
Diphyllobothrium latum have
been floating behind glass since
March 1, 1944—longer than
most of the researchers in his
lab have been alive. Just over
four years ago, the humaninfesting
wigglers moved with
him from the halls of Harvard
University to the tree-shaded
labs of the College of Veterinary
Medicine’s Department of
Infectious Diseases.
He left 29 years of familiar
in Boston to work with other
faculty at UGA to contribute
to the upward trajectory of
infectious disease research
at UGA. “We’re well on the way on that track,” said
Harn, a professor of infectious diseases and a Georgia
Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator.
Worms and vaccines: Those two seemingly separate
areas of research are what keep Harn’s lab hopping
and his fingers busy typing away on applications
for grant dollars. The connector between the two is
schistosomiasis, a parasitic worm disease that, at any
given time, globally infects 200 million people.
Harn’s schistosomiasis research started when he
was a post doctoral associate at Harvard “in the
Dark Ages,” he said. His field trials in China and the
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine
Philippines still revolve around the infection. As he
worked on a vaccine to stop the disease, his research
spun out into what are now the two main focuses
of his lab—vaccine discovery and development and
analysis of the anti-inflammatory molecules found in
parasitic worms.
Lifesaving worms
Some of Harn’s most recent research, which
appeared in the journal Nature Medicine in late
2012, found that worms secrete a certain sugar-based
molecule—the same found in human breast milk. It’s
good news for obesity researchers: The molecules