Richard Frothingham

Dr. Frothingham is the principal investigator of a research laboratory which studies Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of tuberculosis, and Mycobacterium avium, a closely related bacterium causing serious infections in AIDS patients. We are pursuing two current projects.

The first project aims to develop vaccines against M. avium and M. tuberculosis. We inject mice with candidate plasmid DNA vaccines which produce bacterial proteins in mouse muscle. We use a variety of DNA adjuvants to modify the immune response. We hope to use DNA vaccination to protect against new infections and to modify the course of existing infections. We also hope to identify correlates of vaccine-induced protective immunity.

The second project uses variations in bacterial DNA sequences to identify species and strains. Dr. Frothingham was part of a team of four Duke scientists who used DNA sequence analysis to identify the cause of Whipple's disease. He also identified used DNA sequence to identify a particular group of M. avium strains which cause disseminated infections in AIDS patients. We recently developed a new tuberculosis typing method using variable numbers of tandem DNA repeats. We are applying this new typing method in national and international collaborations.

Dr. Frothingham does not currently conduct clinical trials.

Special areas of expertise include tuberculosis, mycobacteria, strain differentiation, DNA vaccination, and pyrazinamide.

Key words: tuberculosis, mycobacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium avium, DNA vaccines, tandem repeat DNA, pyrazinamide, mouse