Ken Stuart, PhD, is a professor in the Center of Global Infectious Disease Research at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, an affiliate professor of Global Health at the University of Washington where he chaired the Department of Pathobiology (1996 to 2004) and an affiliate investigator in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Research Cancer Center.
He received a BA in biology from Northeastern University, Boston (1963), a MA in biology from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut (1965) and a PhD in zoology from the University of Iowa, Iowa City (1969). He received Postdoctoral training in biochemistry at the National Institute for Medical Research, London (1969 to 1970) and SUNY Stony Brook (1970to 1972) before becoming an assistant professor of biology at the University of South Florida (1972 to1976) prior to moving to Washington in 1976 when he founded the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (dba the Center for Infectious Disease Research). He is an expert on the molecular and cell biology of parasitic pathogens and is known for his groundbreaking studies of RNA editing, a novel fundamental genetic process. He led a consortium for the discovery of drugs for parasitic diseases and was a leader in an international consortium that sequenced and interpreted the genomes of three related parasites and currently leads a multi-institutional project studying human immune responses to malaria and HIV vaccines.
Dr. Stuart’s research is focused on protozoan pathogens and the diseases that they cause. These include malaria which is caused by Plasmodium parasites and diverse diseases which are caused by related Trypanosomatid parasites. His lab investigates 1) Human immune responses to malaria vaccination and infection in order to aid vaccine development and 2) fundamental molecular and cellular processes intrypanosomatids to elucidate novel molecular functions and identify potential drug targets. He is well known for his studies of RNA editing and his leadership of parasite genomics and drug discovery consortia. He currently leads a multi-institution research program on human immune responses to HIV, malaria and TB, which is part of the NIH Human Immunology Project Consortium. He has served on NIH study sections and USAID and WHO advisory groups and currently serves on the NIH NIAID council.