Ronald Arlen Sherman

Share
OC Visionaries 2022

Board Chair & Director
BioTherapeutics, Education & Research (BTER) Foundation

Dr. Ronald Sherman started studying myiasis and maggot therapy during medical school and published his first paper on the topic in 1983. He started the first prospective studies of maggot therapy in 1990 as a post-doctoral student at University of California, Irvine. He joined the faculty at UCI a few years later to continue his research in maggot therapy and wound care. Requests for Dr. Sherman’s medical grade maggots increased worldwide and in 2002, while organizing a multi-center clinical trial, the FDA started regulating medicinal maggots. In 2003, Dr. Sherman also co-founded the BioTherapeutics, Education and Research (BTER) Foundation, a public charity whose mission was to advance health care through education and research in medicinal animals (biotherapy). For the past 19 years, he has been board chair and executive director of the BTER Foundation, publishing multiple research projects and developing educational programs for clinicians and the general public.