Sebastian Lourido, an associate professor of biology at MIT and a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, is leading a charge against the pervasive but elusive parasite Toxoplasma gondii, the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, which affects up to one-third of the global population. Lourido's quest hinges on decoding the enigma of the parasite's resilience and how it switches from dormancy to disease, particularly in the immunocompromised.
According to information detailed by MIT News, Lourido's lab is dissecting the genetic underpinnings that allow T. gondii to remain quiescent within human hosts and reawaken to wreak havoc. Despite the existence of drugs tackling acute toxoplasmosis symptoms such as headaches and fever, once the parasite reaches dormancy, these treatments lose their efficacy. Thus, the research aims to birth new therapeutic strategies for this dormant phase and potentially other akin parasites like Babesia.
"One of the missions of my lab to improve our ability to manipulate the parasite genome, and to do that at a scale that allows us to ask questions about the functions of many genes, or even the entire genome, in a variety of contexts," Lourido told MIT News. In Lourido's narrative, the focal point is the intersection of genetics, microbiology, and a transformative scientific approach utilizing CRISPR technology to probe and perturb the T. gondii genome.
"We’re actively working to understand how environmental inputs end up guiding the parasite in one direction or another," Lourido explained. "They seem to preferentially go into those chronic stages in certain cells like neurons or muscle cells, and they proliferate more exuberantly in the acute phase when nutrient conditions are appropriate or when there are low levels of immunity in the host," as reported by MIT News.
