Jessica Lopes da Rosa-Spiegler, a postdoctoral research fellow in biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, received $51,000 from the National Institutes of Health to study Trypanosoma brucei, a parasite that infects humans and cattle in certain parts of Africa.
Humans infected with T. brucei suffer from a severe neurological disease called African sleeping sickness that is fatal when left untreated. However, the chemotherapeutic treatments currently in use are toxic and difficult to administer. This project will examine the unique aspects of T. brucei’s genetic expression to better understand the parasite and provide new targets for drug development.
