Who we are
A growing community of scientists of color studying parasitic organisms around the world
Biology Education
Cryptosporidia
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Bishara Marzook
Postdoctoral Fellow
The Francis Crick Institute
Research Focus: Cell biology of host-pathogen interactions using Cryptosporidium; host cytoskeleton and innate immunity using organoids and mice as model systems; development of new models to understand the evolution of Apicomplexans.
Twitter
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General Interest in Parasitology
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Juan David Reyes García
Undergraduate
University of Quindío
Research Interests: I really like parasites, it is my area of interest, and I want to learn more about them and their applications
Twitter: @Juan_ReyesG121
Host Immunity
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Pedro Gazzinelli Guimaraes
Principal Investigator
George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Research Focus: regulation of the immune response to helminth parasitic infections and to the pathogenesis of allergic diseases; plasticity and specificity of circulating peripheral and tissue-resident effector Th2 cells driven by helminth antigens and/or allergens; role of the effector Th2 subsets in the establishment of tissue Type-2-mediated inflammation.
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De'Broski R. Herbert
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Meera Nair
Principal Investigator
University of California Riverside
Research Focus: My lab investigates the immune response to lung and intestinal helminth infection. In these infectious settings, we study the function of innate cells such as macrophages that infiltrate the infected tissue and secrete the small regulatory RELM proteins or respond to endocannabinoid.
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Leishmania
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Carolina Catta-Preta
Postdoctoral Scholar
National Institutes of Health (NIH-NIAID)
Research Focus:
The 'secret life' of Leishmania inside the sand fly, including its cryptic sexual cycle, identification of gamete-like cell types and their role in genetic exchange, impact of the life cycle in the sand fly on Leishmania transmission and disease progression.
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Maria Adelaida Gomez
Principal investigator
CIDEIM Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Medicas
Research Focus: Translational research on neglected infectious diseases; molecular mechanisms determining the outcome of human infections caused by intracellular parasites; leishmaniasis; optimization of treatments and prevent pathology.
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Zahra Rezaei
Postdoctoral Scholar
Shiraz University of Medical Science
Research Focus: Emphasis on the diagnosis, epidemiology, and treatment of parasitic infection. My research covers a range of parasitic diseases, including leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis, hydatid disease, and trypanosomiasis. I have used a variety of approaches, such as serology, molecular biology, computational screening, and clinical studies, to investigate these diseases.
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Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales
Neospora
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Rashid Bajwa
Graduate Student
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Research Focus: Study of innate immune responses to Neospora caninum
Plasmodium
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Sabrina Absalon
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Mariana De Niz
Postdoctoral Fellow,
Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon
Research Focus: Host-parasite interactions of Plasmodium and Trypanosoma brucei at the vascular endothelium. My expertise is in microscopy, and a main interest of mine is understanding biophysics mediating parasite dynamics in tissues.
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Johanna Harvey
Postdoctoral Fellow
American Museum of Natural History
Research Focus: The impacts of anthropogenic change, climate change as well and land cover change on pathogen virulence and avian host immune response using an integrative framework of disease ecology, host immunology, and predictive modeling to examine the response of avian disease, primarily avian malaria, to global climate change.
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Chi-Min Ho (Mimi)
Principal Investigator
Columbia University
Research Focus: Understanding the molecular basis of host-pathogen interactions mediated by large membrane protein complexes at the host-parasite interface in blood-stage malaria parasites using cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) and in situ cryoelectron tomography (cryoET).
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Salihu Aliyu Idris
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Jackline Jumah
Graduate Student
KEMRI-USAMRD/A
Research Focus: To dig deep in population genetics in parasite research and be able to answer more research questions in the field of malaria research.
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Lucy Kamau
Graduate Student
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Juja, Kenya
Research Focus: Plasmodium
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Vasant Muralidharan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Georgia
Research Focus: organization and function of the Plasmodium secretory pathway in two parasite-specific biological processes: 1. The export of parasite effectors to the host red blood cell. 2. Egress of the parasite daughter cells from the infected red blood cell.
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Sharon Patray
Postdoctoral Scholar
University of Pennsylvania
Research Focus: Host-pathogen interactions from a structural point of view. CryoET, Plasmodium.
Twitter: @SharonPatray
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Gabriel Rangel
Postdoctoral Fellow
Pennsylvania State University
Research Focus: Understanding how malaria parasites adapt their metabolism upon becoming resistant to antimalarial compounds; I LCMS metabolomics to identify exploitable metabolic vulnerabilities that arise with resistance to various compounds.
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Camila Silva
Postdoctoral Scholar
University of Georgia
Research Focus: Cell-autonomous immunity to liver-stage malaria
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Madel Tutor
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Platyhelminthes
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Nurudeen Rahman
Schistosoma
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Amanda E Ruiz
Graduate Student
Brown University
Research focus: the relationship between protective immune responses to parasite antigens and naturally acquired resistance to schistosomiasis in endemic populations. My main project focuses on identifying candidates for developing vaccines against human and bovine schistosomiasis japonica.
Strongyloides
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Michelle Castelletto
Project Scientist
University of Los Angeles, California
Research Focus: Transgenesis and neural development in Strongyloides species
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Toxoplasma
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Adnan Alhindi
Research Associate
University of Glasgow
Research Focus: The molecular epidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii among rodents.
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Vishakha Dey
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Eman Fathi
Lecturer
Sohag University
Research Focus: molecular biology of Toxoplasma gondii in humans, especially immunocompromised patients.
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Maria E. Francia
Principal Investigator
Laboratory of Apicomplexan Biology, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo; Universidad de La Republica School of Medicine
Research Focus: Mechanisms of transmission and pathogenesis of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum using molecular genetics, genomics and microscopy-based approaches.
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Anita Koshy
Principal Investigator
University of Arizona; BIO5 Institute, Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute
Research focus: Physician-scientist (but just an MD) who studies how T. gondii persists in the brain.
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Tatiane Lima
Principal Investigator
California State Polytechnic University - Pomona
Research Focus: Innate immunity to T. gondii infection and mechanisms of parasite immune evasion.
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Venkat Mudiyam
Graduate Student
University of Bonn
Research Focus: Gene regulation in Apicomplexan parasites
Twitter: @VMudiyam
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Lena Pernas
Principal Investigator
Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing
Research Focus: Mitochondria, microbes
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Trichomonas
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Emma Trujillo
Graduate Student
Cal Poly Pomona
Research Focus: Complement receptors, specifically CD11b, CD11c, and CD18, and what role they may or may not play in the trogocytosis of Trichomonas vaginalis by the host’s neutrophils.
Twitter: @emmanicole_97
Trypanosoma
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Victoria Lucia Alonso
Principal Investigator
IBR-CONICET
Research Focus: The role of tubulin posttranslational modifications (especially tubulin acetylation) during replication and differentiation in Trypanosoma cruzi. We have identified several new drug targets against T. cruzi involved in acetylation-dependent cellular processes.
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Edward D'Antonio
Associate Professor
University of South Carolina Beaufort
Research Focus: The goal of my research program focuses on discovering novel chemical compounds that inhibit enzyme targets of Trypanosoma cruzi and I have an interest in the potential drug-target glucokinase (TcGlcK). Therapeutic drug discovery strategies that I have worked on include SBDD, X-ray crystallography, virtual screening, hit-to-lead expansions, SAR, and HTS.
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Maria Forlenza
Principal Investigator
Wageningen University and Research
Research Focus: Comparative Immunology & host-pathogen interaction; use fish and chicken to study the evolution of the vertebrates' immune system; use pathogens (trypanosomes and viruses) to trigger an immune response; zebrafish-trypanosome infection model.
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Noelia Lander
Principal Investigator
University of Cincinnati
Research Focus: Study of signal transduction pathways in trypanosomes, flagellated protozoan parasites that produce fatal diseases like sleeping sickness, caused by Trypanosoma brucei, and Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. How these parasites undergo developmental transformations in response to microenvironmental changes is one of the main questions we seek to answer.
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Michelle Shimogawa
Research Associate
University of California, Los Angeles
Research Focus: the role of the flagellum in parasite biology (molecular mechanisms underlying flagellar motility, role of motility during host infection, sensing/signaling through the flagellum)
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Daniel Velez-Ramirez
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California, Los Angeles
Research Focus: cAMP signaling in trypanosomes
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Veterinary Parasitology
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Md Mukthar Mia
Scientist
Sylhet Agricultural University - Bangladesh
Research Focus: Molecular parasitology and drug discovery