Faculty

Our research centers on studying the host/pathogen interactions of the intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii. T. gondii is a member of the coccidian family of parasites that include Plasmodium and Cryptosporidium. My laboratory uses molecular genetics techniques to isolate the T. gondii genes necessary to establish animal chronic infection because there are no drugs capable of eliminating cysts. To uncover the host and parasite genes involved in the establishment and maintenance of chronic infection, we recently completed a next generation sequencing project of T. gondii infected mice that are at the peak of acute or chronic infection. This dataset represents the “interactome” between the host and parasite over time and includes three biological replicates at each time point, over 1 billion sequences. Overall, these studies will generate new drug targets against T. gondii chronic infection that will help develop novel therapies.