Dr Patrick Kobina Arthur Wins "Stars In The Global Health Award"

Dr Patrick Kobina Arthur Wins "Stars In The Global Health Award"
Dr. Patrick Kobina Arthur of the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology has received a research grant funded by Grand Challenges Canada for his project titled: “Proteomic Analysis of the Molecular Mechanisms Of Latency And Drug-Resistance In M. Africanum I and Screen for Novel Antimycobacterials from Fungal Sources”. Dr. Arthur is one of the 102 winners announced in the first phase of Round 4 of the Stars in Global Health challenge from Grand Challenges Canada. Stars in Global Health, the venture capital-like component of Grand Challenges Canada, supports exceptional innovators who have bold ideas which can make big impact in the area of global health. Innovators/ researchers have to be based either in Canada or in low- or middle-income countries. This round (i.e., Phase 1, Round 4) saw the award of new grants in the $100, 000 funding level to 102 creative, out-of-the-box ideas which were selected by independent peer review from 436 applications. The ideas awarded share a single goal: to reduce debilitating disease and saving lives in developing countries. Fifty-nine (59) grants went to innovators in 13 low- and middle-income nations worldwide to pursue bold and new imaginative ideas to tackle health problems in resource-poor countries. Forty(40) of these projects are based in seven(7) African countries (14 in Kenya, 10 in Uganda, 7 in Tanzania, 3 in Ethiopia, and 2 each in Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda).The remaining43 award winners were from Canada. Dr. Arthur will receive an amount of $113,000 CAD over an eighteen (18) month period for his project which aims at discovering more effective drugs from fungal sources for the treatment of tuberculosis. The project is also expected to discover new drugs which are effective in the treatment of both latent and drug-resistant tuberculosis which is now a major global health challenge. The Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID) congratulates Dr. Arthur on his award.
	Date Published: 08/05/2013

Career Profile: Patrick Kobina Arthur - May 2013

Patrick Kobina Arthur, PhD Research and Teaching Faculty Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology   University of Ghana Volta Road P.O. Box LG 54 Legon-Accra Email:   parthur@ug.edu.gh              parthur14@gmail.com LinkedIN: http://ch.linkedin.com/pub/patrick-kobina-arthur/34/982/943 Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/PAKARLab   Dr. Patrick Kobina Arthur is lecturer at Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology of the University of Ghana. He obtained his PhD in Developmental Biochemistry at the University of Göttingen in Germany. He has undertaken several post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Maryland - College Park, USA, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH-Zurich) and the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge in the UK. His research activities are in the area Chemical Systems Biology of Infectious Pathogens that comprises Infection Biology of Tuberculosis, etc, Chemical Biology of Fungal Metabolites, Advanced Imaging Techniques and Mass Spectrometry-based Proteomics of the perturbations caused in infectious pathogens by novel bioactive compounds. The mission of Dr. Arthur's research is towards the discovery and development of new antibiotics against tropical infectious diseases. Towards the discovery of novel anti-infective agents, his research group has presently isolated and screened more than three thousand distinct fungal species. The surprisingly high rate of the occurrence of anti-infective activities in the culture extracts of these fungi has led the group to develop a phenotypic array-based workflow as a key strategy. This allows for the comparison of the bioactive extracts of many standard antibiotics on the basis of their pattern of activities across different physiological conditions of the test organisms. Dr. Arthur’s group is currently in the process of isolating pure compounds from fungal extracts from the priority list. These compounds will be extensively characterized using NMR-structural elucidation, advanced imaging techniques and mass spectrometry-based proteomics to provide understanding of their mechanism of action to support pre-clinical development. Dr. Arthur has won a number of research grants from a number of organisations, such as DAAD-Germany, Grand Challenges Canada, TWAS-Italy, IFS-Sweden, and Gates Foundation/ NMIMR. Dr. Arthur was also selected as a fellow to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting as well as a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) in 2012 where he served as a non-voting member of the Executive Committee of the GYA from 2012-2013. Check out his publications here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patrick_Arthur and his personal blog here: http://pakar1-corner.blogspot.com/…/career-profile-patrick-… Professional appointments: 2009– date: Lecturer – Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Ghana, 2011: Academic Guest/Visiting Scientist - Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland 2009: Visiting Scientist – Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland - College Park, MD 2008– 2009: Lecturer – Biochemistry, University of Cape Coast Education: 2003 – 2008: PhD in Biochemistry, University of Göttingen – Germany 2001 – 2003: MSc in Molecular Biology, University of Göttingen – Germany 1997 – 2001: BSc in Biochemistry, University of Ghana, Legon Teaching:  Cell Biology - Eukaryotic Cell Biology Protein Biochemistry - Protein Structure and Mechanism of Action Developmental Biology - Molecular Mechanisms Intermediary Metabolism Experimental Techniques in Biochemistry Structure and Function of Biomolecules Principles and Applications of Biotechnology Bioprocess Engineering Research Interests: Chemical Biology and Proteomics in the Context of Infectious Diseases Isolation and characterization of novel bioactive compounds from organisms originating from tropical-equatorial biodiversity hotspots, namely:               > Basidiomycetes (Wood Decaying Fungi),              > Ascomycetes (Marine Endophytic Fungi)              > Microalgae              > Actinomycetes Targeted Proteomics (Selected Reaction Monitoring) of Mycobacteria              (in collaboration with the Aebersold Lab, ETH-Zurich, Switzerland). Chemical proteomics of target proteins in human parasites to specific novel bioactives and vice versa as well as corresponding off-target cellular proteins in humans. Comparative and functional proteomics on target proteins & specific novel bioactives. Clinical proteomics of novel bioactives, identification of biomarkers for in vivo activities. Protein Biochemistry - Establish a library of 100 enzymes for molecular biology applications. Molecular and structural dynamics of ribonucleoprotein complexes. Research Grant Awards: Grand Challenges Canada - Stars in Global Health Round 4 (100,000 CAD) : May 2013 to Nov 2014(http://www.grandchallenges.ca/grantee-stars/0237-01/) Post-Doctoral fellowship Award by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research ( ) – 2013-2015 DAAD Equipment Grant  (23,000 euros) – 2012 Short-term Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant  (15,000 euros)  – EMBO – ETH-Zurich – 2011 Short-term Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant  (12,000 CHF) – SNSF– ETH-Zurich – 2011  German Government – ZAV/CIM/BMZ –Equipment Grant  (10,000 euros)  – 2010 Research publications: 1. Expression, purification and analysis of the activity of enzymes from the pentose phosphate pathway.     Arthur PK, Alvarado LJ, Dayie TK., Protein Expr Purif. 2010 Nov 23. [Epub ahead of print] 2. Elr-type proteins protect Xenopus Dead end mRNA from miR-18-mediated clearance in the soma.      Koebernick K, Loeber J, Arthur PK, Tarbashevich K, Pieler T. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.     2010 Sep 14;107(37):16148-53. Epub 2010 Aug 30. 3. Participation of Xenopus Elr-type proteins in vegetal mRNA localization during oogenesis.      Arthur PK, Claussen M, Koch S, Tarbashevich K, Jahn O, Pieler T. J Biol Chem.     2009 Jul 24;284(30):19982-92. Epub 2009 May 20.