Christian Tschudi, PhD

Professor Tschudi’s studies focus on the biology of trypanosomes the causative agents of devastating diseases in Africa and South America. Most projects in the laboratory utilize bioinformatics and modern genetic techniques to identify and dissect parasite-specific functions. The laboratory has developed several methodologies for creating mutants and has been instrumental in establishing a number of techniques to study processes at the biochemical level. These approaches will lead to a better understanding of the infectious cycle of the parasite, which involves a mammalian as well as an insect host. The long term goal is to identify candidate molecules that can be targets for chemotherapy.

Most recently, we have established and used RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq), a novel high-throughput sequencing technology, to interrogate the transcriptome of the parasitic protozoa Trypanosoma brucei, the agent of African sleeping sickness in man and nagana in cattle.

In the course of this work, we have optimized the RNA-Seq protocol for use with trypanosomatids, built our own server, implemented a stream-lined bioinformatics pipeline and generated one of the most comprehensive genome-wide transcript maps at single-nucleotide resolution. Such information is central to the identification of functional elements, to determine the timing and regulation of gene expression in different developmental stages and to identify novel drug targets. Indeed, this work has dramatically expanded the repertoire of known genes to include over 1,000 novel genes with many displaying features suggesting that they are secreted or modulate the characteristics of membranes and thus play a role in the response of T. brucei to the changing environment during its complex life cycle. We expanded the transcriptome studies to developmental stages of T. brucei in the tsetse fly vector (in collaboration with Dr. Aksoy) and to the life cycle of Leishmania (Viannia) panamensis (in collaboration with Dr. McMahon-Pratt).

• Profiling the transcriptome of the parasitic protozoa Trypanosoma brucei, the agent of African sleeping sickness in man and nagana in cattle, by next-generation high-throughput sequencing.

• Characterization of molecular mechanisms Involved in RNA metabolism with special emphasis on RNA interference and the role of small RNAs in trypanosome biology.

• Developmental biology of African trypanosomes in its Invertebrate Host, a collaborative effort with Professor Serap Aksoy in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases

• Characterization of enzymes involved in RNA modification, a collaboration with Professor Shulamit Michaeli at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, Israel