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First hand accounts of Blastocystis infection

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BRF Governance

Donations pay for phone conferencing fees so our board members can donate their time.  You would not be reading this now if it weren't for our donors.  Please click here to make a tax deductible donation to BRF.

Karen Weisman, MD, MPH (President, Board Member: Dr.Weisman is a physician with over 16 years of experience.  She runs a private practice in Corvallis, Oregon.  She is a graduate of Northwestern University, and performed her internship in internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente, California.

Kenneth Boorom (Vice President Research, Treasurer, Board Member): Ken Boorom did his undergraduate and graduate work in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.  He holds two patents and has taught undergraduate and graduate engineering classes in Idaho and Oregon.  He has organized and/or co-authored every US study on Blastocystis published in the last 3 years.  His family contracted Blastocystis infection in 2003 after relocating to Oregon.

Dr. Daniel Sheehan (Secretary, Board Member): Dr. Dan Sheehan received a B.S. from St. Bonaventure University (1965) and a PhD in cell molecular biology from St. John`s University (1990), New York.  In 1989, Dr. Sheehan authored one of the first US studies on symptomatic Blastocystis infection in patients seen at Albert Einstein Medical College in New York City.  After over 20 years experience in clinical microbiology laboratories at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center in New York, he joined Pfizer Inc in 1992. At Pfizer, he served as a Senior Medical Director for over 16 years, directing antibiotics and antifungals programs where he launched fluconazole, voriconazole and anidulafungin. Dr. Sheehan serves as the pharmaceutical representative and a voting member on both the Antimicrobial and Antifungal Subcommittees of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). In this capacity, he played a major role in establishing standard methods for antifungal susceptibility testing. He currently works as an industry consultant.

Dr. Richard Krogsrud (Board Member): Dr. Krogsrud is a co-owner of Antibodies Incorporated, a California company which developed the first immuno-diagnostic test for Giardia infection in the 1960’s. 

Dr. Roy Mondesire (Board Member): Dr. Mondesire did graduate work on Pneumocyctis carinii in immunocompromised hosts at the University of Toronto.  He earned a PhD at the University of Guelph in Ontario specializing in the immunology of Chlamydia infections.  He headed the immunodiagnostics research division at Ortho/Johnson & Johnson until 1986.  He then joined Allelix to manage product development for a pregnancy and fertility diagnostics, as well as tests for tumor markers, Hepatitis, Chlamydia, Neisseria and Syphilis.  In 2004, he went to work with the WHO to develop improved diagnostics for dengue, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, and schistosomiasis.  He runs a diagnostics consulting company, developing platforms for lateral flow, microfluidics, optical and electrochemical detection for  dengue, HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, MRSA, STIs, Flu, Group A & B Strep, E. coli and C. difficile infections.  He does work for the United States Department of Defense and is a reviewer for the NIH.

Dr. Charles H. Zierdt (Board Member Emeritus) Dr. Zierdt is a 35-year veteran of the US National Institutes of Health, where he served as a research microbiologist from 1959 to 1995.  A former president of the American Society for Microbiology (DC Chapter, 1976), he has authored over 64 articles on the microbiology of infectious diseases, primarily on Pseudomonas aeruginosa,  Staphylococcus aureus, Trypanosoma cruzi, and Blastocystis.  He developed the first ELISA and IFA serum antibody tests for Blastocystis, and the first immuno-fluorescence stain.  He performed the first published experimental animal infection with Blastocystis.  His work has been continued by researchers, primarily in Asia and the Middle East, who are addressing this infection in their populations.