Richard Frothingham, MD

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• Infectious Diseases

Department / Division:
Medicine / Infectious Diseases and International Health

Address:
DUMC 103020
Durham, NC 27710

Appointment Telephone:
919-681-6261

Office Telephone:
919-684-3349

Fax Telephone:
919-681-1678

• MD, Duke University School of Medicine, 1981

• Internal Medicine/Pediatrics, University of Rochester (New York), 1982-1986

• Infectious Diseases, Duke University Medical Center, 1990-1993

Clinical Interests:
HIV infection

Research Interests:

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

Representative Publications:
Frothingham R, Meeker-O'Connell WA. Genetic diversity in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex based on variable numbers of tandem DNA repeats. Microbiology 1998;144:1189-1196. (1998)

Frothingham R, Meeker-O'Connell WA, Talbot EAS, George JW, Kreuzer KN. Identification, cloning, and expression of the Escherichia coli pyrazinamidase and nicotinamidase gene, pncA. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 1996;40:1426-1431. (1996)

Frothingham R, Wilson KH. Molecular phylogeny of the Mycobacterium avium complex demonstrates clinically meaningful divisions. Journal of Infectious Diseases 1994;169:305-312. (1994)

Frothingham R, Wilson KH. Sequence-based differentiation of strains in the Mycobacterium avium complex. Journal of Bacteriology 1993;175:2818-2825. (1993)

Wilson KH, Blitchington R, Frothingham R, Wilson JAP. Phylogeny of the Whipple's-disease-associated bacterium. Lancet 1991;338:474-475. (1991)