Ralph M. Garruto
Education:
PhD, Penn State University 1973
About:
Professor of Biomedical Anthropology and Neurosciences. Natural experimental models of disease, health consequences of migration and modernization (health transition), aging and neurodegenerative disorders, field and laboratory approaches, cross-disciplinary research; Andes, Pacific Islands, China, Siberia, Cambodia, Caribbean.
Contact:
rgarruto@binghamton.edu
Research Interests:
My primary research interests are in natural experimental models, gene-environment interactions, health transitions, food chain disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. My current research projects include high incidence foci of ALS and Parkinsonism in the Western Pacific, Viliusk Encephalomyelitis, health transitions in Cambodia, Vanuatu, Saba Island, and the U.S., obesity and hypertension and cross-species transmission of prion diseases, particularly Chronic Wasting Disease.
Selected Bibliography:
(Last 5 Years)
Little MA and Garruto RM. IN PRESS. Global impacts of anthropological climate change on human health and adaptability. In: The Anthropologist - Anthropology Today (Trends, Scopes, and Applications), ed. by MK Bhasin. Delhi, India.
Meredith C. Hermosura and Ralph M. Garruto. 2007. TRPM7 and TRPM2 - Candidate Susceptibility Genes for Western Pacific ALS and PD? BBA – Molecular Basis of Disease, doi: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2007.02.008
Weitz CA and Garruto RM. 2007. A comparative analysis of arterial oxygen saturation among Tibetans and Han born and raised at high altitude. High Altitude Medicine and Biology 8(1): 13-26.
Bauer TM, Arber C, Navratil N, Garruto RM, and Spathis R. 2007. Training Manual and Guide to the NIDS-LCNSS-BU Seruc Archive, Graudate Program in Biomedical Anthropology, Laboratory of Biomedical Anthropology and Neurosciences, Binghamton University.
Sundar PD, Yu CE, Sieh @, Steinbart E, Garruto RM, Oyanagi K, Craig UK, Bird TD, Wijsman E, Galasko D, Schellenberg GD. 2007. Two sites in the MAPT region confer genetic risk for Guam ALS/PDC and dementia. Human Molecular Genetics 16: 295-306.
Beata S, Garruto R, Yanagihara R, Gelpi E, Liberski PP. 2006. Neuropathologia I neuropatogeneza stwardbienia bocznego zanikowego I innych chorob neuronu ruchowego- w poszukiwaniu brakujacego ogniwa. Stwardnienie boczne zanikowe 29-30: 41-54.
Garruto RM. 2006. A Commentary on Neuronal Degeneration and Cell Death in Guam ALS and PD: An Evolutionary Process of Understanding. Current Alzheimer Research 3: 397-401.
Wietz CA and Garruto RM. 2006. Population differences in sexual dimorphism during growth at high altitude on the Qinghi-Tibetan Plateu. In: Gender Disparity: Manifestations, Causes, and Implications, Bharati P and Pal M, eds., pp. 70-102. Anmol Publications Pvt, Ltd., New Delhi.
Chan CW, Garruto RM, and Lum JK. 2006. Paleoparasite Populations from Archived Sera: Insights into Chloroquine Drug Resistance in Papua New Guinea. Journal of Infectious Disease 194:1023-1024.
Chan CW, Lynch D, Spathis R, Hombhanje FW, Kaneko A, Garruto RM, and Lum JK. 2006. Flashback to the 60s: Utility of archived sera to explore the origin and evolution of Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance in the Pacific. Acta Tropica 99: 15-22.
Jenkins PL, Forshay E, Earle-Richardson G, Garruto RM and Green A. Obesity, exercise, and ten-year heart disease incidence in central New York. Obesity Research (IN PRESS).
Hermosura MC, Nayakanti H, Dorovkov MV, Calderon FR, Ryazanov AG, Haymer DS, Garruto RM. 2005. A TRPM7 variant shows altered sensitivity to magnesium that may contribute to the pathogenesis of two Guamanian neurodegenerative disorders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102: 11510-11515.
Gupta VB, Suram A, Hegde ML, Zecca L, Ravid R, Stein R, Garruto RM and Rao KSJ. 2005. Aluminum in Alzheimer’s disease: Are we still at a crossroad? Cellular Molecular Life Sciences 62: 143-158.
Garruto RM, Little MA, Weitz CA. 2004. Environmental stress and adaptational responses: consequences for human health outcomes. Collegicum Anthropologicum 28: 509-540.
Weitz, CA and Garruto RM. 2004. The growth of Han migrants at high altitude in Central Asia. American Journal of Human Biology 16: 405-419.
Weitz CA, Garruto RM, Liu, J-C, and Chin C-T. 2004. Growth in body size and thorax dimensions among Tibetans compared to Han born and raised at high altitude. Annals of Human Biology 31: 292-310.
Gellein KG, Garruto RM, Syversen T, Sjobakk TE, and Flaten TP. 2003. Concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Rb, V and Zn in formalin-fixed brain tissue in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and parkinsonism-dementia complex of Guam determined by high-resolution ICP-MS. Biological Trace Element Research 96: 39-60.
Soloway L, Broytman O, and Garruto RM. 2003. Search for the cause of Guam ALS-PDC: development of an experimental clinical model. 28th Annual Meeting of the Human Biology Association, Tempe, Arizona, April 25-27. American Journal of Human Biology 15: 285.
Uspensky I, Garruto RM, and Goldfarb L. 2003. The taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus (Acari: Ixodidae) in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) of Russia: distributional and reproductive ranges. Journal of Medical Entomology 40: 119-122.
Garruto RM. 2003. An emerging need between anthropology and the biomedical sciences: A new graduate degree program in biomedical anthropology. Abstracts of the XV International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Florence, Italy, July 5-12, I: 514.
Weitz CA and Garruto RM. 2003. Physiological adjustments of Han migrants to high altitude in Central Asia. 28th Annual Meeting of the Human Biology Association, Tempe, Arizona, April 25-27. American Journal of Human Biology 15: 289.
Garruto RM, Chin C-T, Weitz CA, Liu J-C, Liu R-L, and He X. 2003. Hematological differences during growth among Tibetan and Han Chinese born and raised at high altitude in Qinghai, China. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 122: 171-183.
Plato CC, Garruto RM, Galasko D, Craig U-K, Plato M, Gamst A, Torres JM, and Wiederholt W. 2003. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and parkinsonism-dementia complex of Guam: changing incidence rates during the past sixty years. American Journal of Epidemiology 157: 149-157.
Galasko DR, Plato CC, Gamst A, Salmon D, Garruto RM, Craig U-K, Perl D, and Schellenberg VA. 2002. ALS, Parkinson-Dementia Complex and Late-Life Dementia on Guam: The Role of Genes and Environment. 8th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders, Stockholm, Sweden, July 20-25. pp.S449.
Weitz CA, Garruto RM, Chin C-T, Liu J-C, Liu L-L and He X. 2002. Lung function of Han Chinese born and raised near sea level and at high altitude in western China. American Journal of Human Biology 14: 495-510.
Plato CC, Galasko MD, Garruto RM, Plato M, Gamst A, Craig U-K, Torres JM and Wiederholt W. 2002. ALS and PDC of Guam: Forty-year follow-up. Neurology 58: 765-773.
Poorkaj P, Tsuang D, Wijsman E, Steinbart E, Garruto RM, Craig U-K, Chapman NH, Anderson L, Bird TD, Plato CC, Perl DP, Weiderholt W, Galasko D and Schellenberg GD. 2001. TAU as a Susceptibility Gene for Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis--Parkinsonism Dementia Complex of Guam. Archives of Neurology 58: 1871-1878.
Galasko DR, Plato CC, Garruto RM, Plato M, Craig U-K, Torres J, and Wiederholt WC. 2001. ALS and Parkinson-Dementia Complex of Guam: A forty-year follow-up of a prospective Case-Control Study. 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 2-May 6. Abstracts: (N/A)
Garruto RM and Rutledge SA. 2001. Multidisciplinary cross-cultural studies of dementia in Western Pacific populations: Etiology, pathogensis and relevance to Alzheimer's disease. American Anthropology Association, Washington D. C., November 28-December 2. Abstracts (N/A)
Gellein K, Garruto RM, Syversen T.E., and Flaten TP. 2001. Trace elements in brain tissue in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and parkinsonism-dementia of Guam. Third International Symposium on Trace Elements in Human: New Perspectives, Athens, Greece, October 4-6. Proceedings Book , pp. 1136-1137.
Garruto RM. 2001. Government research: links to biomedicine and public health. In: A Guide to Careers in Biological Anthropology, AS Ryan, ed., pp. 219-239. Bergin and Garvey, Westport, Connecticut.
Lee H-S, Brown P, Cervanáková L, Garruto RM, Alpers MP, Gajdusek DC and Goldfarb LG. 2001. Increased susceptibility to Kuru of carriers of the PRNP 129 methionine/methionine genotype. Journal of Infectious Diseases 183: 192-196.
Garruto RM and Little MA. 2001. Human dimensions of biodiversity: processes, interactions and outcomes. American Journal of Human Biology 13(1): 121-122.