Jean-François Rossignol
Encyclopedia
Jean-François Rossignol is an American scientist, a medicinal chemist and a physician, born in France on September 5, 1943. He was educated at the University of Paris
, later specializing in tropical medicine
. He then pursed a career in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry discovering and developing new drugs for the treatment of parasitic diseases such as halofantrine
in the treatment of multidrug resistant Falciparum malaria or albendazole
and nitazoxanide
for the treatment of intestinal protozoan
and helminthic
infections. In 1993, he co-created his own pharmaceutical company, Romark Laboratories, L.C., to develop his own invention nitazoxanide
, the first of the thiazolides. At Romark, he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company and its Chief Science Officer. Following the discovery of the antiviral activity of the thiazolides Rossignol went to Stanford University
in California to study interferon stimulated gene pathways and chronic viral hepatitis under Prof. Emmet Keeffe and Prof. Jeffery Glenn. It was in the Glenn laboratory that the mechanism of antiviral activity of nitazoxanide against the hepatitis C
virus was discovered. In 2009, Prof. Raymond Dwek invited him to come to Oxford University at the Glycobiology Institute in the Department of Biochemistry to study the interference of immunity with viral glycoprotein synthesis.
. Created in 1911 by the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris, the Radium Institute was the place where two generations of Curies, first Pierre
and Marie Curie
, later their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie
, and Frédéric Joliot
, her husband, discovered natural and artificial radioactivity winning five Nobel prizes between 1903 and 1935. Profoundly marked by the Curie’s legacy, Rossignol considered pursuing a career in nuclear physics. The Radium Institute and the adjacent Curie Foundation
were also home to a major cancer hospital where Marie Curie and Claudius Regaud had initiated radiotherapy with the radium that Marie had discovered and where the first primitive treatments of cancer were applied, and ultimately, it was Rossignol’s exposure to medicine during these years that would kindle his interest and determine his future orientation toward medical research.
, the first of thiazolides. Nitazoxanide was first tested in the Cavier’s laboratory and was found effective against both intestinal protozoa and helminths in vitro or in laboratory animals and was first administered in humans in France in the treatment of Taenia saginata
and Hymenolepsis nana
in a small number of patients.
was only his first step toward tropical medicine. In the early days of 1980, Rossignol met Prof. Pierre Pène in Marseille, France. Pène had spent his professional life in West Africa, first in Dakar in Sénégal, later in Abidjan in Ivory Coast where he had founded the country’s first medical school and eventually became its first Dean. From Marseille, Pène trained Rossignol in tropical medicine. In the meantime, the pharmaceutical giant, SmithKline & French Laboratories in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, aware of the work in parasitology carried out in the Cavier’s laboratory in Paris, had put Rossignol in charge of developing the benzimidazole carbamate anthelminthic, albendazole
, for the treatment of intestinal helminthiasis
. From Marseille to Geneva, it was only a short trip to the Division of Parasitic Diseases at the World Health Organization
under its director, Andrew Davis, and it would be there that two major antiparasitic drugs, praziquantel
and albendazole, would be clinically developed. Praziquantel became a major advance in the treatment of schistosomiasis
, effective against the five strains of the parasite. Albendazole was the first effective single dose nematocidal anthelminthic, one of the most widely used drugs in the developing world. Both medicines were included in the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Drugs. Rossignol would work with Davis for the next 10 years.
While working with Cavier in Paris, Rossignol had also searched for antimalarial agents with the Antimalarial Drug Development Program of the United States Army Research & Development Command based at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
in Washington D.C. He completed the work initiated by the Army with the antimalarial, halofantrine, and conducted three well-controlled clinical studies in France, in Mali, a country in West Africa, and in French Guyana in South America for the treatment of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant Falciparum malaria, involving SmithKline & French Laboratories in the process. Albendazole and halofantrine received their regulatory approvals in the United States from the Food and Drug Administration
under the trade names of Albenza® and Halfan® respectively and were licensed in a large number of countries around the world. They are still commercialized today by GlaxoSmithKline
, Plc, the successor of Smith Kline & French Laboratories.
was re-invented in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
at the National Institutes of Health
in Bethesda, Maryland as the first effective treatment for the emerging apicomplexan protozoa, Cryptosporidium parvum
. It was subsequently developed by Romark Laboratories, L.C. in both immunocompetent and immuno-suppressed individuals such as those with AIDS. It would be eventually approved in the United States by the Food & Drug Administration under the trade name of Alinia®
for the treatment of non-immunodeficient adults and children from 12 months of age.
The serendipitous discovery of the antiviral activity of nitazoxanide and the discovery of its mechanism of action opened a new chapter in Rossignol’s life and led to the discovery of an entirely new class of indirect antiviral drugs, acting in stimulating the production of interferons by the host’s immune cells activating several interferon stimulated gene pathways known to block viral translation. More intriguing perhaps are the effects of thiazolides on adaptive immunity and more specifically on T Lymphocytes
, B Lymphocytes
and Natural Killer cells
. It is the subject of intense research at Oxford University in the United Kingdom and at the National Institutes of Health in the United States and could lead to a new approach in the treatment of many other diseases such as AIDS but also some cancers or auto-immune diseases. Romark Laboratories quickly initiated the synthesis of hundreds of second generation thiazolides carried out in the United Kingdom at the University of Liverpool
under Andrew Stachulski, and new derivatives are now entering clinical development in the treatment of viral diseases such as viral enteritis caused by rotavirus
and norovirus, influenza
and influenza like illnesses
and chronic viral hepatitis B and C
. Nitazoxanide, the first of the thiazolides was the first treatment ever discovered for cryptosporidial diarrhea, viral gastroenteritis caused by norovirus and rotavirus
and respiratory syncytial virus. It was found safe enough to be given to infants from 2 to 12 months of age and was recently proposed to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a drug of choice for treating diarrhea in children targeting a global reduction of infant mortality in the developing world.
(FRCPath) and Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (HonFFPM). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
and the Royal Society of Medicine. In the United States he was elected fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (FCPP), the oldest medical association created in the new world more than 200 years ago. He is a member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
, the American Society for Microbiology
, the American Chemical Society
and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. He received an honorary doctorate degree from the Nacional Universidad de Cajamarca in Peru. Cajamarca is a city hidden in the Andes Mountains where he spent many years with his medical team studying and treating tropical parasitic diseases. For his work in the local community he was also made honorary member of the Colegio Medico del Peru, the National Peruvian Medical Association. Dr. Rossignol held multiple faculty appointments with several universities but more importantly in the United States at Stanford University in California and in the United Kingdom at Oxford University, two institutions where he conducted most of his basic and clinical research. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in scientific and medical journals and has been awarded 31 United States patents on new drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases. For 11 years, he served first as a consultant and later as an expert in parasitic diseases for the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He has lived in the United States since 1982.
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
, later specializing in tropical medicine
Tropical medicine
Tropical medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with health problems that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or prove more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions....
. He then pursed a career in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry discovering and developing new drugs for the treatment of parasitic diseases such as halofantrine
Halofantrine
Halofantrine is a drug used to treat malaria. Halofantrine's structure contains a substituted phenanthrene, and is related to the antimalarial drugs quinine and lumefantrine. Marketed as Halfan, halofantrine is never used to prevent malaria and its mode of action is unknown...
in the treatment of multidrug resistant Falciparum malaria or albendazole
Albendazole
Albendazole, marketed as Albenza, Eskazole, Zentel and Andazol, is a member of the benzimidazole compounds used as a drug indicated for the treatment of a variety of worm infestations. Although this use is widespread in the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved...
and nitazoxanide
Nitazoxanide
Nitazoxanide, also known by the brand names Alinia and Annita is a synthetic nitrothiazolyl-salicylamide derivative and an antiprotozoal agent.Nitazoxanide is a light yellow...
for the treatment of intestinal protozoan
Protozoan infection
Protozoan infections are parasitic diseases organisms formerly classified in the Kingdom Protozoa. They include organisms classified in Amoebozoa, Excavata, and Chromalveolata....
and helminthic
Parasitic worm
Parasitic worms or helminths are a division of eukaryoticparasites that, unlike external parasites such as lice and fleas, live inside their host. They are worm-like organisms that live and feed off living hosts, receiving nourishment and protection while disrupting their hosts' nutrient...
infections. In 1993, he co-created his own pharmaceutical company, Romark Laboratories, L.C., to develop his own invention nitazoxanide
Nitazoxanide
Nitazoxanide, also known by the brand names Alinia and Annita is a synthetic nitrothiazolyl-salicylamide derivative and an antiprotozoal agent.Nitazoxanide is a light yellow...
, the first of the thiazolides. At Romark, he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company and its Chief Science Officer. Following the discovery of the antiviral activity of the thiazolides Rossignol went to Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in California to study interferon stimulated gene pathways and chronic viral hepatitis under Prof. Emmet Keeffe and Prof. Jeffery Glenn. It was in the Glenn laboratory that the mechanism of antiviral activity of nitazoxanide against the hepatitis C
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...
virus was discovered. In 2009, Prof. Raymond Dwek invited him to come to Oxford University at the Glycobiology Institute in the Department of Biochemistry to study the interference of immunity with viral glycoprotein synthesis.
Education
Rossignol began to study chemistry at the University of Paris under Prof. Paul Cadiot and prepared a doctorate degree in synthetic organic chemistry in the Department of Chemistry of the Radium Institute in Paris, originally the division of Radiobiology and Cancer Research of the Pasteur InstitutePasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...
. Created in 1911 by the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris, the Radium Institute was the place where two generations of Curies, first Pierre
Pierre Curie
Pierre Curie was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity and radioactivity, and Nobel laureate. He was the son of Dr. Eugène Curie and Sophie-Claire Depouilly Curie ...
and Marie Curie
Marie Curie
Marie Skłodowska-Curie was a physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes—in physics and chemistry...
, later their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie was a French scientist, the daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity. This made the Curies...
, and Frédéric Joliot
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
, her husband, discovered natural and artificial radioactivity winning five Nobel prizes between 1903 and 1935. Profoundly marked by the Curie’s legacy, Rossignol considered pursuing a career in nuclear physics. The Radium Institute and the adjacent Curie Foundation
Curie Institute
* the Curie Institute in Paris, a research foundation.* the Curie Institute in Warsaw, a cancer research and treatment center...
were also home to a major cancer hospital where Marie Curie and Claudius Regaud had initiated radiotherapy with the radium that Marie had discovered and where the first primitive treatments of cancer were applied, and ultimately, it was Rossignol’s exposure to medicine during these years that would kindle his interest and determine his future orientation toward medical research.
Nitazoxanide
Upon the defense of his dissertation in chemistry at the University of Paris, he returned to school to study medicine. During his last year at the Radium Institute, Rossignol had met Raymond Cavier, then Professor of Parasitology at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Paris where he was heading the parasitology laboratory searching for new drugs for the treatment of malaria and intestinal parasites. Cavier had tested some of the compounds Rossignol synthesized for his doctorate degree in chemistry, and he offered Rossignol the opportunity to join his laboratory while continuing his medical education. It would prove to be a good decision, and in 1974 Rossignol and Cavier discovered nitazoxanideNitazoxanide
Nitazoxanide, also known by the brand names Alinia and Annita is a synthetic nitrothiazolyl-salicylamide derivative and an antiprotozoal agent.Nitazoxanide is a light yellow...
, the first of thiazolides. Nitazoxanide was first tested in the Cavier’s laboratory and was found effective against both intestinal protozoa and helminths in vitro or in laboratory animals and was first administered in humans in France in the treatment of Taenia saginata
Taenia saginata
Taenia saginata, also known as Taeniarhynchus saginata or the beef tapeworm, is a parasite of both cattle and humans, causing taeniasis in humans. Taenia saginata occurs where cattle are raised by infected humans maintaining poor hygiene, human feces are improperly disposed of, meat inspection...
and Hymenolepsis nana
Hymenolepis
Hymenolepis is a genus of cyclophyllid tapeworms responsible for hymenolepiasis.Species include:*Hymenolepis nana*Hymenolepis diminuta*Hymenolepis microstoma- History :...
in a small number of patients.
Rossignol's Work in Tropical Medicine
ParasitologyParasitology
Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question, but by their way of life...
was only his first step toward tropical medicine. In the early days of 1980, Rossignol met Prof. Pierre Pène in Marseille, France. Pène had spent his professional life in West Africa, first in Dakar in Sénégal, later in Abidjan in Ivory Coast where he had founded the country’s first medical school and eventually became its first Dean. From Marseille, Pène trained Rossignol in tropical medicine. In the meantime, the pharmaceutical giant, SmithKline & French Laboratories in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, aware of the work in parasitology carried out in the Cavier’s laboratory in Paris, had put Rossignol in charge of developing the benzimidazole carbamate anthelminthic, albendazole
Albendazole
Albendazole, marketed as Albenza, Eskazole, Zentel and Andazol, is a member of the benzimidazole compounds used as a drug indicated for the treatment of a variety of worm infestations. Although this use is widespread in the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved...
, for the treatment of intestinal helminthiasis
Helminthiasis
Helminthiasis is a macroparasitic disease of humans and animals in which a part of the body is infested with parasitic worms such as pinworm, roundworm, or tapeworm...
. From Marseille to Geneva, it was only a short trip to the Division of Parasitic Diseases at the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
under its director, Andrew Davis, and it would be there that two major antiparasitic drugs, praziquantel
Praziquantel
Praziquantel is an anthelmintic effective against flatworms. Praziquantel is not licensed for use in humans in the UK; it is, however, available as a veterinary anthelmintic, and is available for use in humans on a named-patient basis....
and albendazole, would be clinically developed. Praziquantel became a major advance in the treatment of schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by several species of trematodes , a parasitic worm of the genus Schistosoma. Snails often act as an intermediary agent for the infectious diseases until a new human host is found...
, effective against the five strains of the parasite. Albendazole was the first effective single dose nematocidal anthelminthic, one of the most widely used drugs in the developing world. Both medicines were included in the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Drugs. Rossignol would work with Davis for the next 10 years.
While working with Cavier in Paris, Rossignol had also searched for antimalarial agents with the Antimalarial Drug Development Program of the United States Army Research & Development Command based at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
This article is about the U.S. Army medical research institute . Otherwise, see Walter Reed .The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defense...
in Washington D.C. He completed the work initiated by the Army with the antimalarial, halofantrine, and conducted three well-controlled clinical studies in France, in Mali, a country in West Africa, and in French Guyana in South America for the treatment of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant Falciparum malaria, involving SmithKline & French Laboratories in the process. Albendazole and halofantrine received their regulatory approvals in the United States from the Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
under the trade names of Albenza® and Halfan® respectively and were licensed in a large number of countries around the world. They are still commercialized today by GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
, Plc, the successor of Smith Kline & French Laboratories.
Development of Nitazoxanide and Other Thiazolides
In 1993, nitazoxanideNitazoxanide
Nitazoxanide, also known by the brand names Alinia and Annita is a synthetic nitrothiazolyl-salicylamide derivative and an antiprotozoal agent.Nitazoxanide is a light yellow...
was re-invented in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health , an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services...
at the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
in Bethesda, Maryland as the first effective treatment for the emerging apicomplexan protozoa, Cryptosporidium parvum
Cryptosporidium parvum
Cryptosporidium parvum is one of several protozoal species that cause cryptosporidiosis, a parasitic disease of the mammalian intestinal tract....
. It was subsequently developed by Romark Laboratories, L.C. in both immunocompetent and immuno-suppressed individuals such as those with AIDS. It would be eventually approved in the United States by the Food & Drug Administration under the trade name of Alinia®
Nitazoxanide
Nitazoxanide, also known by the brand names Alinia and Annita is a synthetic nitrothiazolyl-salicylamide derivative and an antiprotozoal agent.Nitazoxanide is a light yellow...
for the treatment of non-immunodeficient adults and children from 12 months of age.
The serendipitous discovery of the antiviral activity of nitazoxanide and the discovery of its mechanism of action opened a new chapter in Rossignol’s life and led to the discovery of an entirely new class of indirect antiviral drugs, acting in stimulating the production of interferons by the host’s immune cells activating several interferon stimulated gene pathways known to block viral translation. More intriguing perhaps are the effects of thiazolides on adaptive immunity and more specifically on T Lymphocytes
T cell
T cells or T lymphocytes belong to a group of white blood cells known as lymphocytes, and play a central role in cell-mediated immunity. They can be distinguished from other lymphocytes, such as B cells and natural killer cells , by the presence of a T cell receptor on the cell surface. They are...
, B Lymphocytes
B cell
B cells are lymphocytes that play a large role in the humoral immune response . The principal functions of B cells are to make antibodies against antigens, perform the role of antigen-presenting cells and eventually develop into memory B cells after activation by antigen interaction...
and Natural Killer cells
Natural killer cell
Natural killer cells are a type of cytotoxic lymphocyte that constitute a major component of the innate immune system. NK cells play a major role in the rejection of tumors and cells infected by viruses...
. It is the subject of intense research at Oxford University in the United Kingdom and at the National Institutes of Health in the United States and could lead to a new approach in the treatment of many other diseases such as AIDS but also some cancers or auto-immune diseases. Romark Laboratories quickly initiated the synthesis of hundreds of second generation thiazolides carried out in the United Kingdom at the University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
under Andrew Stachulski, and new derivatives are now entering clinical development in the treatment of viral diseases such as viral enteritis caused by rotavirus
Rotavirus
Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children, and is one of several viruses that cause infections often called stomach flu, despite having no relation to influenza. It is a genus of double-stranded RNA virus in the family Reoviridae. By the age of five,...
and norovirus, influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
and influenza like illnesses
Influenza-like illness
Influenza-like illness , also known as acute respiratory infection and flu-like syndrome, is a medical diagnosis of possible influenza or other illness causing a set of common symptoms, with SARI referring to Severe Acute Respiratory Infection.Symptoms commonly include fever, shivering, chills,...
and chronic viral hepatitis B and C
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...
. Nitazoxanide, the first of the thiazolides was the first treatment ever discovered for cryptosporidial diarrhea, viral gastroenteritis caused by norovirus and rotavirus
Rotavirus
Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe diarrhoea among infants and young children, and is one of several viruses that cause infections often called stomach flu, despite having no relation to influenza. It is a genus of double-stranded RNA virus in the family Reoviridae. By the age of five,...
and respiratory syncytial virus. It was found safe enough to be given to infants from 2 to 12 months of age and was recently proposed to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a drug of choice for treating diarrhea in children targeting a global reduction of infant mortality in the developing world.
Honors and Awards
In the United Kingdom, Dr. Rossignol was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), the Royal College of PathologistsRoyal College of Pathologists
The Royal College of Pathologists, founded in 1962, was established to co-ordinate this development and maintain the internationally renowned standards and reputation of British pathology. Today the College advises on a vast range of issues relating to pathology...
(FRCPath) and Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine
The Faculty of Pharmacutical Medicine is a Faculty of the three Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK...
of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (HonFFPM). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and George Carmichael Low. Sir Patrick Manson, the Society's first President is generally acknowledged as the father of tropical medicine. He passed the presidency on to the Nobel laureate Sir Ronald Ross ,...
and the Royal Society of Medicine. In the United States he was elected fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (FCPP), the oldest medical association created in the new world more than 200 years ago. He is a member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene is a non-profit organization of scientists, clinicians, students and program professionals whose longstanding mission is to promote global health through the prevention and control of infectious and other diseases that disproportionately...
, the American Society for Microbiology
American Society for Microbiology
The American Society for Microbiology is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. Microbiology is the study of organisms too small to be seen with the naked eye and which must be viewed with a...
, the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. He received an honorary doctorate degree from the Nacional Universidad de Cajamarca in Peru. Cajamarca is a city hidden in the Andes Mountains where he spent many years with his medical team studying and treating tropical parasitic diseases. For his work in the local community he was also made honorary member of the Colegio Medico del Peru, the National Peruvian Medical Association. Dr. Rossignol held multiple faculty appointments with several universities but more importantly in the United States at Stanford University in California and in the United Kingdom at Oxford University, two institutions where he conducted most of his basic and clinical research. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in scientific and medical journals and has been awarded 31 United States patents on new drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases. For 11 years, he served first as a consultant and later as an expert in parasitic diseases for the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He has lived in the United States since 1982.