ABSTRACT

“Jellyfish” belong to the 600 million year old Cnidaria phylum that is defined by the presence of explosively discharging, subcellular venom-filled capsules, called cnidae. Stings from certain species of cubozoans, or box jellyfish, cause more deaths than shark attacks each year. Over the past 18 years, my research has focused on addressing the “basic where, when, and how questions” related to lethal and severe stings by these ancient invertebrates. This effort led me off shore to the pelagic night habitats of these fascinating animals and down a complex cross-disciplinary path of marine field ecology, traditional and innovative biochemistry, cell and animal assays and molecular modelling. At a pivotal point, exhaustive literature searches led to 18th and 19th century veterinary approaches which in turn stimulated novel insights and led to the development of a powerful new therapeutic class of venom inhibitors. Finally, the goal of “translational” outcomes was realized with the collaborative help of compounding pharmacists to produce over-the-counter formulations, now in use by Special Operations Command combat divers and commercially available to the beach-going public, completing the path of beach to bench and back.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Angel Yanagihara, at the Bekesy Laboratory of Neurobiology, Pacific Bioscience Research Center, SOEST Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, says:.
I was born at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage Alaska where we were stationed. My dad was a career SAC AF officer and I attended 12 schools in 12 years moving from Alaska to New Jersey, then Alabama, Virginia, and Texas. My academic background includes two baccalaureate degrees, with honor theses, in both biology and chemistry, from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia (1978-1982), and doctoral degree candidacy in biochemistry at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. (1983-1988). I completed more than 60 hours of graduate course work at Georgetown University, including courses in biochemistry, advanced organic chemistry, protein chemistry, immunology, electron microscopy, and carbohydrate chemistry. I was awarded First Place in the 1986 Graduate Student Research Forum, sponsored by the Georgetown University affiliate of Sigma Xi, for my work expressing and characterizing adenylate cyclase component mRNAs in Xenopus laevis oocytes. My independent comprehensive examination project, a novel organic chemistry synthetic strategy involving site specific labeling of monoclonal antibodies, was recommended for provisional patent application. The completion of the Ph.D. degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) (after a seven-year hiatus in my training, following the birth of my daughter with special needs, as well as two subsequent children) allowed me to rejoin the academic research community and to continue my training toward becoming an independent investigator. I have been directing a research effort to elucidate the pathogenic bases of cubozoan envenomation syndromes since 1997.