Tony Szempruch is a 2016 recipient of the American Society for Cell Biology’s Kaluza Prize. Given in collaboration with Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, the prize honors academic excellence in graduate student research.
Szempruch won the award based on work in Steve Hajduk‘s lab in the biochemistry and molecular biology department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. In studies on African trypanosomes, the cause of human African sleeping sickness, Szempruch discovered that these parasites release extracellular vesicles that transfer virulence factors between parasites and can interact with host cells to cause pathology. His discoveries offer opportunities to develop new strategies for diagnosis and treatment of diseases caused by trypanosomes.
Szempruch will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a travel award to attend the 2016 ASCB meeting in San Francisco where he will be recognized at a special presentation before the Keith Porter Lecture.
