About Me

Background and Training

My name is Anissa Waller Del Valle. I am Ph.D. student in the Department of Cellular Biology and member of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases (CTEGD) here at the University of Georgia. I obtained a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Clemson University and was a member of the Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center (EPIC).

Research Interests

I am interested in parasitology, drug discovery, and molecular and cellular biology.

My research aims to evaluate and optimize current therapeutics for Naegleria fowleri, a pathogenic free-living amoeba that causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). PAM is a rare but rapidly progressing central nervous system infection associated with a fatality rate exceeding 97% and a median time from symptom onset to death of 5 days. Treatment of PAM currently depends on a multidrug regimen comprising up to 7 antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiparasitic agents, largely empirically selected based on their use against other infections rather than on systematic evidence demonstrating efficacy against N. fowleri infection in vitro or in vivo. Ultimately, I hope that this work can inform more effective treatment strategies for patients facing this disease.

Experience

I have some experience with R, particularly in assessing dose-response data and drug-drug interactions. So far, I have only worked on analyzing the effects of two-drug combinations and am hoping to learn how to analyze and model complex datasets more rigorously so I can better evaluate the drugs in the current PAM treatment regimen and identify combinations with the greatest potential to improve patient outcomes.

For this exercise, I would like to share SynergyFinder Plus, a tool desgined to analyzed drug combination dose-response matrix data.

Other

I am a big Star Wars fan – so much so that my cat’s name is Padme Catmidala (Waller Del Valle).