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About Lalitha Paddireddi, 2008 Sarachek Award Winner
 Lalitha Peddireddi is a student of Dr. Roman Ganta and works in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology. Ms. Peddireddi is evaluating proteomics and transcriptomics of Ehr-lichia chaffeensis, an intracellular bacterium that is transmitted by ticks and is becoming an in-creasingly serious problem in humans. The genes in which she is particularly interested encode a portion of the proteins on the outer membrane and are differentially expressed in the tick and vertebrate host.
Ms. Peddireddi has been at KSU since 2004 and has two published articles on this topic and has made presentations at two national professional meetings. She plans to use the funds she has been awarded to, among other things, attend some of the professional development workshops offered by the American Society for Microbiology for young scientists.
About Kamesh Reddy Sirigireddy, 2007 Sarachek Award Winner
Even in his formative years, there were clues Kamesh Reddy Sirigireddy would grow up to become a researcher who looks for ways to combat such deadly diseases as West Nile virus. That pursuit has now brought him honors.
Sirigireddy, who anticipates finishing his Ph.D. at Kansas State University in December, has been named the 2007 Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship winner. The fellowship recognizes his study of the molecular mechanisms employed by a tick-transmitted pathogen, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, which causes diseases in wildlife, livestock, pets and humans.
While earning master´s and Ph.D. degrees at K-State, Sirigireddy also helped develop diagnostic tests for such emerging infectious diseases as canine ehrlichiosis, West Nile virus and others. Those tests are used today in K-State diagnostic laboratories.
A native of Kadapa, India, Sirigireddy said that he has always been interested in science. Although neither of his parents is a scientist, they always encouraged him.
That combination led to his earning a doctor of veterinary medicine degree at Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (formerly the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University). In 2002 he moved to the United States to pursue further studies at K-State.
"I´m excited and honored to receive this award. It will give me the freedom to look at different career opportunities that might be available, once I finish at K-State," Sirigireddy said. An only child, Sirigireddy credits his parents, teachers and wife for the successes he´s had so far in his career.
"I have also been very fortunate to be able to work under the guidance of Dr. Roman Ganta (K-State veterinary pathobiologist)," he said. "We are trying to identify genes that are responsible for persistent infection and pathogenicity. This knowledge will help us in devising better disease-control strategies."
Sirigireddy said he will pursue a career in either industry or at a university, adding that he enjoys teaching, as well as learning.
About Chanitchote Detvistisakun, 2006 Sarachek Award Recipient
Chanitchote Detvisitsakun was not a farm girl growing up in her native Thailand, but the work she is doing at Kansas State University may one day benefit farmers and food processors around the world.
Detvisitsakun, who goes by the nickname Am, is the recipient of the 2006 Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship for her study of the pathogenesis of baculoviruses in insects.
The fellowship provides a $15,000 award to a resident graduate student enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Kansas State University. The student's research must be in a field of study relating significantly to contemporary molecular biological techniques.
Detvisitsakun is working under the direction of K-State assistant professor of biology Lorena Passarelli. Her research proposed that virus fibroblast growth factors (vfgfs) play important roles in spreading infection within an infected insect. By studying the mechanism by which infections are spread within the insect, researchers may one day be able to apply that knowledge to control pests in the future.
Detvisitsakun grew up in Panasnikhom, a city of about 100,000 people in the Chonburi province, about 30 minutes from the beach.
The young scientist's career was headed in a different direction in the mid-1990s, when she accepted an internship in
Thailand's Ministry of Public Health. There she took samples from patients to test for such diseases as human papillomavirus (HPV) and Hepatitis C. It was her first exposure to DNA evaluation and the related laboratory equipment.
"I was impressed. I saw that this was a very good field - one in which I could apply my work to many kinds of research," she said. Detvisitsakun earned a bachelor's degree in biotechnology from King
Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang in Thailand and a master's degree in genetics under the direction of George Liang, professor of agronomy at K-State. She plans to finish her Ph.D. in biology within the next year.
Once she finishes her studies at K-State, Detvisitsakun plans to return to Thailand to teach and conduct research. "I've received a lot of encouragement and support at KSU," she said, adding that she hopes to pass along some of the same help and encouragement to students in Thailand.
About David Hogenkamp, 2005 Sarachek Award Recipient
 David has been awarded the
2005 Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship for his work studying
chitinmetabolism in insects.
The fellowship provides a
$15,000 award to a resident graduate student enrolled in a Ph.D. program
at Kansas State University. The student’s research must be in a field of
study relating significantly to contemporary molecular biological
techniques.
Hogenkamp, who is working under the
direction of K-State biochemist S. Muthukrishnan and U.S. Department of
Agriculture biochemist Karl Kramer, is studying chitin, the second most
abundant (carbohydrate) polymer in nature, next to cellulose (found in
plants, including trees). "Chitin provides the
structural support in insect structures much like the steel rods do in
reinforced concrete,” Hogenkamp said. "Because chitin is absent in mammals
and higher plants, chitin metabolism represents a selective target for the
development of insect growth regulators (IGRs), or insecticides. These
IGRs may be valuable for use in agriculture.”
He is using the tobacco hornworm and the
red flour beetle as model insects for studying chitin metabolism.
A native of Canada, Hogenkamp has both U.S.
and Canadian citizenship. At an early age he took a job as a busboy at
Bugsy’s Restaurant in his hometown of St. Catharines, Ontario. He soon was
promoted to cook, a position in which he earned enough money to pay for
his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Brock University.
After graduation from Brock with honors, he
joined the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., where he
served on active duty in an infantry unit for four years. While there, he
met and married his wife, Theresa. The couple has two sons, Jacob and
Tyler.
After serving in the army, Hogenkamp worked
as an instructor for the TRIO program, Upward Bound Math and Science,
where he taught chemistry to high school students who were considering
studying science in college. TRIO programs (named for the original three)
are educational programs that provide opportunities to low-income and
disabled Americans.
Hogenkamp enrolled as a Ph.D. candidate at
Kansas State in 2002.
About Akiko Sugio, 2004 Sarachek Award Recipient
Akiko Sugio, a Ph.D. candidate in Kansas State University’s Department of Plant Pathology, has been awarded the 2004 Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship for her work studying the causal agent in bacterial blight of rice.
Sugio, who is working under the direction of K-State professor of plant pathology Frank White, is studying the functions of virulence proteins secreted by Xanthomonas oryzae – the causal agent of bacterial blight in rice. Bacterial blight is a water-borne disease that infects rice plants when droplets carrying the bacteria (Xanthomonas oryzae) land on leaf wounds that are caused by such factors as heavy rains and high winds.
Sugio is a native of Tokyo, Japan. She received a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering and a master’s degree in biotechnology from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Following her time there, she spent two years as a researcher for a company that produces industrial enzymes – specifically on clones and characterizations of enzymes from plant pathogenic fungi. That work, she said, sparked her interest in learning more about how different organisms interact with each other and led to her work at K-State.
About Israel Muro, 2003 Sarachek Award Recipient
Israel Muro
has always been interested in how things function and fit in with the rest
of the world. As a little boy in his home state of Colorado, he spent hours
observing insects and other animals. He would take apart just about
anything electronic and try to figure out how it worked. He usually could
put them together again with no harm done. Early in his education Israel
was introduced to the world of science. He knew from the beginning that he
wanted to be a scientist when he grew up.
To begin his
academic career, Israel attended Colorado State University where he majored
in Microbiology. During this time his interest in science increased and he
knew that scientific research would be a part of his life from then on.
During his years at CSU, he was introduced to molecular biology, which
became his favorite area of study.
Israel soon
viewed molecular biology as the most fundamental aspect of biological
research and saw it was the field he wanted to enter. After graduating from
CSU, Israel came to Kansas State to study the molecular biology of insects.
He soon became a graduate student in Dr. Rollie Clem's laboratory in the
Division of Biology, where he began studying apoptosis, also known as
Programmed Cell Death. Apoptosis is a program built into most if not all
cells, which directs a cell to deliberately kill itself if it senses
something is wrong. This sacrifice allows the whole organism to survive by
killing only a limited number of cells. This process plays an important
role in resistance to diseases.
Israel's
thesis research has focused on apoptosis in the model organism Drosophila
melanogaster, or fruit fly. His goal is to learn how the fly's cell
death pathway functions and how it is regulated, which will add to the
general understanding of apoptosis not just in flies but also in humans. To
this end he has made some highly significant findings, and he has published
several papers in leading scientific journals. He hopes to publish more
before graduating in May 2004. Upon graduating he plans to do postdoctoral
research and intends to someday return to Colorado as a professor in one of
that state's leading research universities. His plan is to continue
performing research in the field of apoptosis using all of the tools he has
acquired.
About Tom Clarke, 2002 Sarachek Award Recipient
Tom
Clarke grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and lived at various times in
Prince Edward Island, Alberta, and British Columbia.
After graduating from the University of Guelph with a BSc specializing in
entomology, Tom moved to Victoria, B.C., to obtain an MSc at the University
of Victoria. His MSc research involved studying the evolution and
diversification of predacious ground beetles endemic to coastal British
Columbia and Alaska, in order to answer biogeographic questions concerning
the role of the Queen Charlotte Islands as a biological refuge during the
last Ice Age.
Tom is currently completing his PhD at K-State under Dr. Rollie Clem.
Tom’s research interests at K-State involve understanding how the insect
immune system is able to cope with viral invasion, with an emphasis on the
role that programmed cell death may play in blocking viral infection.
He is published in the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, the
Journal of Evolution, and the Journal of General Virology.
An avid naturalist, Tom’s non-professional interests include insect
collecting and taxonomy, the rearing of exotic insects and rodents, hiking,
and spelunking.
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