Associate professor of biology at MIT and a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Sebastian Lourido, is studying a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite causes the disease known as Toxoplasmosis, which infects about one-third of the world’s population. While most carriers do not show any symptoms, the parasite can stay dormant in the body for years, only becoming active when the carrier’s immune system weakens. Toxoplasma is part of a group of parasites called apicomplexans, which are challenging to study because their genetics are different from other organisms commonly used in research like yeast, mammals, and bacteria. Current drugs to treat Toxoplasmosis help with the initial symptoms of the disease, but they do not affect the parasite when it is dormant. Lourido’s motivation in researching Toxoplasma gondii stems from the fact that he was diagnosed with Toxoplasmosis at age 17, and his goal with his research is to find a treatment to keep the parasite in its dormant stage.
Lourido’s lab currently uses a technique called CRISPR, which allows scientists to edit genes in the Toxoplasma genome to study how each one affects the parasite’s function and survival. Lourido’s team has discovered important information about drug resistance and the processes that keep the parasite alive by systematically examining each gene. A key discovery was a gene called BFD1, which helps Toxoplasma survive for a long time. Currently, his team is researching the mechanism in which the parasite transitions between dormant and active, and how the parasite prefers to remain dormant in specific cellular environments.
Lourido and his team’s work is exciting as their work can not only be used to help treat the third of the world that is infected with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite, but will likely be used to understand how similar parasites reside within the bodies of various organisms. Although Lourido’s research is in its early stages, the most important thing his research is doing is shedding light on the underfunded research in the field of biomedical research, despite its impact on global health.
https://news.mit.edu/2024/sebastian-lourido-pursues-stealthy-parasite-secrets-0825
https://www.cdc.gov/toxoplasmosis/about/index.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6978799/
