Michael Zasloff

Michael Zasloff
Dr. Michael A. Zasloff MD, Ph.D.
Residence	Georgetown, Washington, D.C. and Bala Cynwyd, PA
Citizenship	United States
Nationality	American
Fields	Pediatrics, Medicine, Surgery, Bioinformatics
Institutions	Georgetown University
Alma mater	Columbia College; New York University School of Medicine
Known for	Magainin Pharmaceuticals, magainin
Notable awards	1994 Kilby International Award,^[1] 2012 ScD (Hon) Georgetown University

Michael A. Zasloff is an American doctor, immunologist, medical researcher, professor, and geneticist. He is currently Scientific Director, MedStar-Georgetown Transplant Institute, Georgetown University Hospital.^[2]

He is well known for his work on innate immunity and antimicrobial peptides including the discovery of Magainin from the frog Xenopus laevis.^[3]^[4]

In 1993 Zasloff reported the discovery of the aminosterol squalamine from the dogfish shark, Squalus acanthias. He founded the pharmaceutical company Magainin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He was Chief of the Genetics Branch of the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the 1980s, and later, Upham Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Between 2002-2004 he served as Dean of Research and Translational Science for Georgetown University School of Medicine. Currently he is at the Georgetown Transplant Institute of the Department of Surgery.

Education

Dr. Zasloff received a B.A. from Columbia College in Chemistry and holds an M.D., Ph.D. from the New York University School of Medicine.^[5]

Post graduate

Zasloff completed residency training in Pediatrics at the Boston Children's Hospital. In 1975 he joined the National Institutes of Health as a Research Associate in the National Institutes of Arthritis, Metabolic and Digestive Diseases, and concurrently completed a Fellowship in Human Genetics at Johns Hopkins with Dr. Victor McKusick.

Professional career

Dr. Zasloff is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Kilby Award for Creativity and Innovation, and the Berson Award in Basic Science from New York University. He is the author of over 100 original peer-reviewed publications, and 40 US and international patents.

Early career

From 1982 until 1988, Dr. Zasloff was Chief, Human Genetics Branch, at the National Institute of Health in both Child Health and Human Development. Dr. Zasloff discovered the underlying basis of pulmonary infections in Cystic Fibrosis to be a malfunctioning of these newly described antimicrobial peptides in the airway of the individuals with cystic fibrosis.

In 1988 Dr Zasloff founded Magainin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a publicly traded biotechnology company. In July 1992 Dr. Zasloff joined Magainin on a full time basis, and served as Executive Vice President and President of the Magainin Research Institute, a basic research division of the Company. From July 1996 through November 2000 Dr. Zasloff was Vice Chairman of the Board of Magainin Pharmaceuticals.^[5]

In 1993, while at Penn, Dr. Zasloff and his group discovered squalamine in tissues of the dogfish shark, the first of a novel class of steroids, called aminosterols. Subsequently his group discovered squalamine to be a potent antiangiogenic compound with activity against solid tumors. He guided its development into clinical trials. Squalamine is currently in Phase II clinical trials being evaluated by Ohr Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the topical treatment of wet age related macular degeneration (AMD).^[6]

International recognition

Dr. Zasloff and his team have been responsible for the discovery, clinical and commercial development of several compounds, including Pexiganan, a synthetic antimicrobial peptide developed for the treatment of infection in diabetics, the first entirely new class of antibiotic to be developed as a therapeutic in 30 years.^[7] Pexiganan is currently being developed by Dipexium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Zasloff served as the Charles E.H. Upham Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Chief, Division of Human Genetics and Molecular Biology, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Zasloff remains affiliated with Penn as Adjunct Professor, Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Molecular Orthopedics.

In January 2002, Dr. Zasloff assumed the position of Dean of Research and Translational Science at Georgetown University. In 2012, Dr. Zasloff delivered the Commencement Address at Georgetown University School of Medicine and received an honorary ScD.^[8]

Honors and other sources

Information on Dr. Michael A. Zasloff can be found at his Georgetown Faculty Page ^[9] including his Curriculum Vitae ^[10]

Selected publications

Zasloff, M. (2011). "Observations on the Remarkable (and Mysterious) Wound-Healing Process of the Bottlenose Dolphin". Journal of Investigative Dermatology 131 (12): 2503–2505. doi:10.1038/jid.2011.220. PMID 21776005.
Zasloff, M. (2002). "Antimicrobial peptides of multicellular organisms". Nature 415 (6870): 389–395. doi:10.1038/415389a. PMID 11807545.
Zasloff, M.; Adams, A. P.; Beckerman, B.; Campbell, A.; Han, Z.; Luijten, E.; Meza, I.; Julander, J.; Mishra, A.; Qu, W.; Taylor, J. M.; Weaver, S. C.; Wong, G. C. L. (2011). "Squalamine as a broad-spectrum systemic antiviral agent with therapeutic potential". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (38): 15978–15983. doi:10.1073/pnas.1108558108. PMC 3179074. PMID 21930925.
Hartman, A. L.; Lough, D. M.; Barupal, D. K.; Fiehn, O.; Fishbein, T.; Zasloff, M.; Eisen, J. A. (2009). "Human gut microbiome adopts an alternative state following small bowel transplantation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 (40): 17187–17192. doi:10.1073/pnas.0904847106. PMC 2746123. PMID 19805153.
Zasloff, M. (2006). "Defending the epithelium". Nature Medicine 12 (6): 607–608. doi:10.1038/nm0606-607. PMID 16760999.
Zasloff, M. (2006). "Inducing endogenous antimicrobial peptides to battle infections". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103 (24): 8913–8914. doi:10.1073/pnas.0603508103. PMC 1482538. PMID 16754884.
Minter, L. M.; Turley, D. M.; Das, P.; Shin, H. M.; Joshi, I.; Lawlor, R. G.; Cho, O. H.; Palaga, T.; Gottipati, S.; Telfer, J. C.; Kostura, L.; Fauq, A. H.; Simpson, K.; Such, K. A.; Miele, L.; Golde, T. E.; Miller, S. D.; Osborne, B. A. (2005). "Inhibitors of γ-secretase block in vivo and in vitro T helper type 1 polarization by preventing Notch upregulation of Tbx21". Nature Immunology 6 (7): 680–688. doi:10.1038/ni1209. PMID 15908937.
Zasloff, M. (2002). "Innate immunity, antimicrobial peptides, and protection of the oral cavity". The Lancet 360 (9340): 1116–1117. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11239-6. PMID 12387955.
Zasloff, M. (2002). "Antimicrobial Peptides in Health and Disease". New England Journal of Medicine 347 (15): 1199–1200. doi:10.1056/NEJMe020106. PMID 12374882.
Zasloff, M. (1992). "Antibiotic peptides as mediators of innate immunity". Current opinion in immunology 4 (1): 3–7. doi:10.1016/0952-7915(92)90115-u. PMID 1596366.
Reilly, D. S.; Tomassini, N.; Zasloff, M. (1994). "Expression of Magainin Antimicrobial Peptide Genes in the Developing Granular Glands of Xenopus Skin and Induction by Thyroid Hormone". Developmental Biology 162 (1): 123–133. doi:10.1006/dbio.1994.1072. PMID 8125181.
Schonwetter, B. S.; Stolzenberg, E. D.; Zasloff, M. A. (1995). "Epithelial antibiotics induced at sites of inflammation". Science 267 (5204): 1645–1648. doi:10.1126/science.7886453. PMID 7886453.
Moore, K. S.; Wehrli, S.; Roder, H.; Rogers, M.; Forrest Jr, J. N.; McCrimmon, D.; Zasloff, M. (1993). "Squalamine: An aminosterol antibiotic from the shark". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 90 (4): 1354–1358. doi:10.1073/pnas.90.4.1354. PMC 45871. PMID 8433993.
Zasloff, M. (1987). "Magainins, a class of antimicrobial peptides from Xenopus skin: Isolation, characterization of two active forms, and partial cDNA sequence of a precursor". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 84 (15): 5449–5453. doi:10.1073/pnas.84.15.5449. PMC 298875. PMID 3299384.