Grant: Project Grant

Parasitic infections pose a major threat to global human health. Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum, the causative agents of toxoplasmosis and severe malaria, respectively, are particularly important due to their widespread distribution and disease outcomes. Toxoplasmosis is highly prevalent in the developed world and is a leading cause of food-borne illness related deaths in the United States. Toxoplasma infections can lead to a variety of disease outcomes and, if congenitally transmitted, can result in abortion, neonatal death and fetal abnormalities. Children that survive prenatal infection are likely to suffer significantly reduced quality of life with neurological deficiencies such as mental retardation. Nearly 3.4 billion people live in at risk zones for malaria resulting in more than 200 million clinical cases and half a million deaths per year, 85% of which are young children. Given the clear impact of these parasitic diseases on human health and the current challenges in effectively controlling them, novel treatments are desperately needed. To establish infection and cause disease, these parasites must invade the individual cells of a host. To accomplish this, they rely on a sophisticated motility system driven by a unique molecular "motor". However, very little is known about the inner workings of this motor and thus the overall process of parasite motility is poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we will use cutting edge biophysical and biochemical techniques to dissect the motor complex. These studies will provide crucial insight into how these globally devastating pathogens invade host cells, which we will, in turn, leverage to identify novel targeted therapies.