NEBRASKA (TIP): A breakthrough therapy has been developed by a team led by an American professor of Indian origin, Dr Pinaki Panigrahi, which can reduce the risk of Sepsis infection (a condition of bacterial infection that spreads fast and leads to organ failure) by 40%. The deadly infection kills around 60,000 kids around the world every year.

Dr. Panigrahi is a professor of epidemiology and pediatrics at the Child Health Research Institute and Center for Global Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre’s College of Public Health.

 An elected fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, he spent about 25 years at University of Maryland before coming to UNMC in 2010. A licensed clinician, tenured faculty and researcher at the UMB medical school, he served as the Director of International affairs at the UMB President’s office and established several hospital and field research sites in India and other countries. Under his direction, the center for global health and development at UNMC is now engaged in public health education, research, and practice across multiple continents with affiliate centers in Taiwan, Tanzania, Kenya, Uruguay, Bangladesh, and India.

Starting with a prestigious Shannon award from the NIH Director’s office, Dr. Panigrahi’s career was supported very early by a FIRST award from NICHD, followed by multiple grants including R01 and U01 awards. Dr. Panigrahi received the young investigator award from the Eastern Society of Pediatric Research for his seminal work on gut flora in the newborn period and its link to necrotizing enterocolitis in premature newborns, followed by multiple basic research and clinical trial grants from federal and state agencies. With over $10M in total funding from NIH and the Bill and Melinda gates Foundation over the last fifteen years, he has directed many large-scale surveillance and intervention studies in India and several hospital-based studies in the U.S.

Dr. Panigrahi has received additional research funding from the Maryland Industrial Partnership, the Fogarty International Center, the UN foundation, corporations such as Nestle-Switzerland and several other. Dr.  Panigrahi has focused on neonatal and child health issues ranging from serious conditions in the developed nations such as necrotizing enterocolitis to neonatal infections, diarrhea, malaria, birth asphyxia, prematurity, still births, and nutrition in the developing world setting. He described for the first time, the clinical picture of pediatric malaria in India to be different from that in Africa allowing the South-East Asia Regional office of the WHO to take a fresh look at their descriptions and recommendations.

Dr. Panigrahi has worked for the World Bank in Belarus and as a consultant to multiple national and international bodies overseas. His work has been published in high impact journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, PLoS Medicine, Pediatrics, and Infection and Immunity. He held the office of the secretary of the International Campylobacter and Helicobacter society, was a panel member of the scientific committee on Federal Regulation of Probiotics – USA, an invited member and participant in the International Scientific Association on Prebiotics and Probiotics and has served on multiple NIH study sections.