<\/p>\n
Areas of Research Interest<\/strong><\/p>\n Globally an estimated one million children in low and middle income countries die before their fifth birthday from enteric infections that result in diarrhea. The virulence of the major causes of diarrheal illness in these settings, the protozoan parasites Entamoeba and Cryptosporidium, is highly variable. My hypothesis is that both parasite genetics and host environment factors control the virulent phenotype and my current focus is on the use of molecular methods to identify the approaches that would be most effective in preventing disease<\/p>\n Current Projects\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Parasite Genetics (Cryptosporidium and Entamoeba spp.)<\/span><\/p>\n Accurate and rapid identification of infections using rapid diagnostics followed by subsequent identification at the species level using molecular methods is needed to accurately evaluate the contribution of specific pathogens to the burden of human disease.<\/p>\n My research here is focused on the development of new real time PCR diagnostics to identify the protozoan species infecting humans. This allows accurate surveillance of infecting species.<\/p>\n I am using a PCR based approach to genotype the infections of Bangladesh children enrolled in a longitudinal study of enteric disease and child malnutrition.<\/p>\n The goal of my research is to link specific parasite genotypes to both the host disease phenotype and the resistance of the parasite to drug treatments.<\/p>\n I am involved in a collaboration with the Sanger Centre, UK to obtain the whole genome sequence of the protozoan parasite populations infecting Bangladesh children.<\/p>\n My goal here is to interrogate the entire parasite genome to identify causal mutations that are closely linked with the virulent phenotype.<\/p>\n