Awareness, Drug Discovery, and Diagnostic Tools for Pathogenic Free-Living Amoebae

Dr. Christopher A. Rice received his doctorate from the University of the West of Scotland in 2014. He was hired as a Postdoctoral Fellow by Dr. Dennis E. Kyle at the University of South Florida to lead his amoeba drug discovery projects. In this role, he developed a high throughput screening methodology for the discovery of novel therapeutics for brain-eating amoeba. He transitioned to UGA with Dr. Kyle in 2017 where he continued amoeba research before becoming an Assistant Research Scientist and teaching faculty in 2019. He was recruited to Purdue in the fall of 2022; his research includes the discovery and development of posaconazole as a combination partner drug for the treatment of Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis caused by N. fowleri. He plans to lead develop more therapeutics against various pathogenic free-living amoebae and develop novel diagnostic tools to accurately quantify the global burden of amoebic diseases.