Barry P. Rosen, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the WSU Department of Biochemistry, recently was awarded at $958,591 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The four-year award will fund a project entitled, "Arsenate resistance in prokaryotes and eukaryotes." All organisms, from bacteria to man, are continually exposed to arsenic and antimony, and the goal of the project is to understand how these toxic metals are dealt with.

As part of the project, Dr. Rosen and his collaborators recently identified an enzyme from the tropical parasite Leishmania that activates the drug Pentostam, an antimony-containing drug that is the treatment choice for leishmaniasis. Leishmaniasis is endemic in many parts ot he world, including Iraq, where it is called "Baghdad Boil." Lt. Col. Peter Weina, director of Leishmania diagnostics at the Walter Reed Medical Center, recently was quoted as saying the U.S. Military recently has had the largest outbreak of leishmaniasis in its history. Dr. Rosen's studies may help to devise new protocols for treating this disease.