Worm diseases, while rare in the United States, afflict hundreds of millions of people in many parts of the world with painful, disfiguring, debilitating and often deadly diseases. The Worm Institute for Research and Medicine (WIRM), led by Dr. Kim D. Janda, was established in 2005 through a generous donation from John J. Moores who had a long-time interest in worm-carried (filarial) conditions. In 1989, he had founded the River Blindness Foundation (later absorbed into The Carter Center of Atlanta where he had served on the Board of Trustees since its founding in 1994) to distribute a treatment for that disease in developing countries, principally in sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Moore's gift to Scripps Research enabled our researchers to focus their work on worm-borne diseases and potential therapeutics for millions of people.
For additional information, please see the Scripps website.
Worm Institute for Research & Medicine
