V. Ann Stewart DVM, PhD

Education

Ph.D. Pathology, Colorado State University, 1993
Residency in Anatomic Pathology, Colorado State University, 1993
DVM NYS College of Veterinary Medicine (Cornell), 1981
B.A. Cornell University College of Arts & Sciences

Biography

I came to USUHS from a long and successful tenure at the WRAIR as a malaria vaccine developer to pursue my other interests in malaria biology. I now have a NIH R01 funded effort to characterize many aspects of the molecular epidemiology of HIV-malaria co-infection in Kenya, an extensive collaboration with the Naval Medical Research Institute to continue projects with malaria vaccine development and immunology as well as to explore ways of developing vaccines for P. vivax and P. falciparum, and a technology transfer project with PEPFAR and PMI in Nigeria, where my lab has successfully taught them the basics of malaria molecular diagnosis so that they could successfully compete for additional, sustainable funding. My collaboration with other malaria molecular epidemiologists has expanded enormously in the past two years, with exciting, as yet unpublished work on the detection of mixed falciparum malaria strains within single patients, strain evolution, and population genetics in the Congo and Kenya; working with these and other projects, including metagenomics of acute febrile illness, has expanded my interest and capabilities in deep sequencing and analytical methodologies.

Career Highlights: Positions, Projects, Deployements, Awards and Additional Publications

Professor, Division of Tropical Public Health, Dept. of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, 2014- present

US Army Superior Civilian Service Medal, June 2011.

Senior scientist, Laboratory Director, Chief, Principle investigator, and Veterinary Medical Officer, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Malaria Vaccine Development, 1997-2011

Visiting Senior Scientist, US Army Medical Research Unit, Kenya, 2007-2010

NRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand, 1995-1997

Veterinary Clinical Practioner, 1981-1986

Representative Bibliography

Miller RH, Obuya CO, Wanja EW, Ogutu B, Waitumbi J, Luckhart S, and VA Stewart. Characterization of Plasmodium ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri in western Kenya utilizing a novel species-specific real-time PCR assay (2015). PLoS Negl Trop Dis 9(1): e0003469.

Riley EM and VA Stewart (2013) Immune mechanisms in malaria: new insights in vaccine development. Nature Medicine 19(2):168-178.

Parsons E, Otieno JA, Ong’echa JM, Nixon CE, Vulule J, Munz C, Stewart VA, and AM Moormann. Regulatory T cells in endemic Burkitt lymphoma patients are associated with poor outcomes: a prospective, longitudinal study (2016). PLoS One 11(12):e0167841.

Parsons E, Epstein J, Sedegah M, Villasante E, and A Stewart. Decrease in circulating CD25(hi)FoxP3(+) regulatory T cells following vaccination with the candidate malaria vaccine RTS,S (2016). Vaccine 34(38):4618-4625.

Hegge SR, Hickey BW, McGrath SM, and VA Stewart. Using hematology data from malaria vaccine research trials in humans and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) to guide volume limits for blood withdrawal (2016). Comparative Medicine 66(6): 474-479.

Murphy SC, JP Shott, S Parikh, P Etter, WR Prescott, VA Stewart. (2013). Malaria Diagnostics in Clinical Trials (review). Am J Trop Med Hyg 89(5):824-839.

Lee, E. H., C. H. Olsen, T. Koehlmoos, P. Masuoka, A. Stewart, J. W. Bennett and J. Mancuso (2017). "A cross-sectional study of malaria endemicity and health system readiness to deliver services in Kenya, Namibia and Senegal." Health Policy and Planning 32(suppl_3): iii75-iii87.