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Seminar Series 2008
Babesia: the unexplored terrain
| Time: Date: Venue: Presenter: |
3.00pm Thursday, 30 October 2008 Conference Room, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute Dr Brian Cooke, Visiting Parasitologist |
The pathogenesis of bovine babesiosis and human malaria are frequently compared. This is not surprising since both are caused by apicomplexan parasites that infect red blood cells and result in diseases whose clinical manifestations are strikingly similar. Over the past two decades, huge advances have been made in our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which malaria parasites cause disease in humans, however, babesia parasites have been relatively ignored. This seminar will highlight our recent efforts, using bioinformatic, proteomic and molecular approaches, together with information from the recently sequenced genome for /B. bovis,/ to identify specific proteins that mediate important cellular changes in red blood cells that play important roles in the pathogenesis of babesiosis (tick fever) in cattle. Ultimately, we believe that such information about the parasites’ ‘exportome’, together with the development of in vitro transfection systems for /B. bovis/, will allow us to identify parasite proteins that are important in the pathogenesis of babesiosis in cattle