Bethesda, MD – The American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) is pleased to announce that David M. Engman, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern University is the 2008 recipient of the ASIP - Amgen Outstanding Investigative Award, a prestigious annual award for excellent research in experimental pathology funded by Amgen. Dr. Engman presented his paper, "Pathogenesis of Chagas Disease: from Trypanosome to Host Cell Invasion to Myocarditis" at the ASIP 2008 Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology in San Diego, where he received the award.
In his research, Dr. Engman has investigated the biology of trypanosomes that cause African sleeping sickness and Chagas Disease. Among other things, Dr. Engman's research involves the mechanism of Chagas disease and creating numerous animal models of the disease, which include the etiology as well as the functional significance of cardiac autoimmunity that is the result of infection. The autoimmune response is made up of two factions: the antigenic molecular mimicry between parasite and heart proteins and cardiac autoimmunity resulting from cardiomyocyte damage by the parasite. By using advanced equipment, the lab is attempting to re-establish immune tolerance to heart antigens while enhancing a robust anti-parasite immune response to clear the organism.
Dr. Engman received his BA from Northwestern University and his MD and PhD from the University of Iowa. Since beginning his career at Northwestern 18 years ago, Dr. Engman has served on many panels concerning the general training of physician-scientists and the specific training of pathologist-scientists, including the National Association of MD/PhD Programs. Dr. Engmen currently serves as the Chair of the AAMC MD/PhD Group and as the Director of the Northwestern Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP).
The American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) is a non-profit educational 501(c)3 society of biomedical scientists who investigate the mechanisms of disease. Investigative pathology is an integrative discipline that links the presentation of disease in the whole organism to its fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms using a variety of structural, functional, and genetic techniques, and ultimately applies research findings to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. ASIP is a member of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), a coalition of 21 independent societies that plays an active role in lobbying for the interests of 84,000 biomedical scientists. ASIP has three Divisions, The Association for Pathology Informatics (API), the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), and the Pulmonary Pathology Society (PPS). For more information visit the ASIP website at www.asip.org.