Zoonotic Diseases

The majority of emerging human infectious diseases are of animal origins owing to increasingly close interactions among humans, domestic animals, and wildlife. Many other factors, including climate change, land use and land cover change, intensive farming practices, backyard farming, animal poaching, and bushmeat consumption all bring animal pathogens closer to human habitats, leading to spillover or cross-species infections in humans. Faculty in this thematic area are investigating mechanisms of disease transmission and pathogenesis for multiple zoonotic pathogens.

Highlight Research relating to the specific thematic area:

Faculty

• Rachel Cheng is characterizing the surface proteome of Salmonella serovars commonly found in poultry to identify conserved proteins on the cell surface that could be used for developing a more broad-spectrum vaccine, or for developing novel rapid-detection methods.
• Raj Gaji aims to dissect the role of TKL kinases in Toxoplasma through the generation of null mutants or conditional knockdowns followed by phenotypic analysis.
• Jingqiu Liao studies the biogeography, dispersal, adaptation, and source tracking of Listeria, Salmonella, and pathogenetic Escherichia coli

Students

• Morgen VanderGiessen (Kehn-Hall lab) is characterizing neurological sequelae in a mouse model of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus infection with the overall goal of identifying common molecular signatures that can be therapeutically targeted to prevent neuropathologies

Affiliated Faculty:

Faculty Spotlights

In the news