Fran Sverdrup, PhD

Saint Louis University (SLU)

My training in infectious diseases led me to the pharmaceutical industry (Pharmacia & Upjohn, Pfizer) where for 10 years I gained drug discovery experience in a number of areas including antivirals, inflammation, immunology and epigenetics. One of my specialties has been developing cell based assays for compound evaluation and screening. In addition, I have hands-on experience with designing and running animal models using mice and rats. I have applyied my drug discovery expertise to the areas of parasitology and orphan diseases at Saint Louis University. I have established drug screening assays for several protozoa including Trypanosoma brucei (Human African Trypanosomiasis ), T. cruzi (Chagas Disease) and Plasmodium falciparum (Malaria) with the goal of discovering new antiparasitic drugs. I addition, I am pursuing the discovery of epigenetic modifiers and therapeutic targets in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD).