Our work is focused on the following:
- biology of the parasite
- developing better medicines to eliminate the parasite
- understanding the immune responses directed against the parasite and how they might be stimulated to prevent toxoplasmosis
- genetics of susceptibility and resistance (host, parasite and their interaction)
From Left to Right: Dr. Rima McLeod MD, Dr. Kamal El Bissati PhD, Dr. Ying Zhou PhD
Toxoplasmosis Across Lifetimes
- Determining whether the persistence of this parasite in the brain and eye leads to sequaelae later in life.
- Evaluating the intermediate and long-term cognitive, neurologic, ophthalmologic, and audiologic outcomes for individuals with treated congenital toxoplasmosis
Medicines and a Cure
- Understanding inhibition of unique molecular targets would facilitate creating medicines that eliminate all life cycle stages of the parasite. This is especially important so that disease recurrence is not an issue and treatments are easier to administer, of shorter duration and curative
- Determining whether there are late side effects associated with treatment
- Novel means to deliver small molecules effective against parasites across multiple membranes, into cells, and active and latent parasites.
- Development of lead anti-Toxoplasma inhibitory compounds using a structure based rational design approach with crystallography and medicinal chemistry collaborators
- Unique metabolic pathways and their products, organelle targeting in apicomplexan parasites which comprise antimicrobial targets not present in animals and inhibitors of these pathways.
- Treatments for human congenital toxoplasmosis that are now the established means for treating this disease and that result in improved cognitive, motor, hearing and vision outcomes for afflicted infants, children, and adults.
- Potential improved treatments for toxoplasmosis
- Lipidomics analysis of T.gondii, with collaborators
- Maternal inheritance of the T. gondii plastids, in collaboration with other scientists
Vaccines
- Developing a vaccine that prevents acquisition and congenital transmission of Toxoplasma gondii.
- Development of models to assess vaccine efficacy and novel approaches to vaccines effective in prevention of toxoplasmosis
- Immunization of mice that reduces parasite burden, improves outcomes for adult mice and and reduce congenital infection in mice.
Genetics, Omics and Systems Biology
- Understanding how Toxoplasma causes infections and whether host genes influence that process, and if so, how.
- Discovery of susceptibility and resistance genes for toxoplasmosis in mice and and humans, and mechanisms whereby they have these effects.
