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Dr. Dickson D. DespommierProfessor of Pubic Health and Microbiology
VC-15-220-B (Office) |
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Dr. Dickson D. DespommierProfessor of Pubic Health and Microbiology
VC-15-220-B (Office) |
The laboratory of Dr. Dickson Despommier focuses on the molecular biology of an intracellular parasite, Trichinella spiralis and its altered host muscle cell, the Nurse cell. This nematode infection causes trichinosis in humans and other mammals, and is one of the few multicellular parasites found throughout the world. It is a health risk where raw or undercooked meats are routinely eaten. Some 5-10% of all people living within the United States are infected with T. spiralis. The research is ongoing, and has received continuous funding from a single research grant from the NIH for the past 27 years. Currently, the lab has been gathering descriptive molecular biological data on temporal events relative to the growth of the parasite and the re-differentiation of the host cell it occupies. In this regard, collagen synthesis of the outer capsule, a dominant morphological feature of the mature Nurse cell, has been investigated using in situ hybridization techniques and cRNA probes with interesting results. In brief, although the parasite induces the over-expression of collagen types IV and VI, the Nurse cell, itself, produces them. Immunocytochemical evidence indicates that the parasite secretes proteins into the milieu of the differentiating host cell that actually get into the nuclei. Viruses are the only other group of infectious agents that can perform this molecular feat. Parasite proteins in host nuclei might function to interrupt or re-direct genomic expression patterns of that cell. Since maintenance of the Nurse cell requires a living worm, by constructing cDNA libraries of mature infective larvae, it is hoped to gain insight into the mechanisms of this process. DNA sequence analysis of those genes encoding nuclear localizing proteins should reveal much regarding this phase of the infection. Anti-sense RNA therapy may then be possible, as a tool for proving the relevance of those secreted products to Nurse cell development and as a potential therapy against the infection, itself.