UW-Madison Dept of Bacteriology
John M. Mansfield
Professor of Bacteriology
4470 Microbial Sciences Building
1550 Linden Drive
(608) 262-2596
mansfield@bact.wisc.edu
Research Focus
Research in our lab focuses on the complex
immunobiological relationship between host and parasite in African
trypanosomiasis, a fatal protozoan disease of man and animals. Our
studies examine the immunogenetics of resistance to disease by
utilizing genetically altered host animals and genetically modified
trypanosomes in order to dissect out those biological elements that
are functionally and genetically linked to resistance. We also examine
programmed changes in parasite gene and protein expression that appear
to be linked to changes in virulence. Genes and proteins
differentially expressed between genetically related high and low
virulence trypanosomes have been isolated and characterized, and
candidate virulence genes are being modified in order to address the
subcellular basis for virulence in African trypanosomiasis. In
summary, research in the Mansfield lab elucidates centrally important
host and parasite biological events that determine the course of
infection, and our future studies are aimed at modifying these events
in order to control or cure trypanosomiasis.