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| Name |
Boothroyd, John C. |
| Location
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Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Primary Field
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Microbial Biology |
| Secondary Field
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Animal, Nutritional and Applied Microbial Sciences |
 Election Citation
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Boothroyd discovered mRNA trans-splicing and polycistronic transcription in eukaryotes (trypanosomes). He launched genetic manipulation and analysis of Toxoplasma, identifying a clonal population structure and the molecular basis of invasion and strainspecific virulence. His work brings new understanding to intracellular parasitism, with important impact for all apicomplexans including malaria parasites. |
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Research Interests
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Dr. Boothroyd is fascinated by the interaction of an infectious agent and the host it infects. His entry into this field came with his joining a collaborative effort to understand antigenic variation in Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African Sleeping Sickness. His group went on to co-discover mRNA trans-splicing and polycistronic transcription in these single-celled eukaryotes. For about the past 25 years, he and his collaborators have been immersed in studying the pathogenesis of another single-celled eukaryote, Toxoplasma gondii. Unlike the African trypanosomes, this ubiquitous cousin of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium, can only grow within another cell. His current work is focused on asking: (1) how Toxoplasma invades and co-opts almost any cell type from almost any warm-blooded animal; (2) how the parasite persists in the human host; 3) how it introduces a collection of polymorphic "effectors" into a host cell; and 4) how these varied effectors produce different disease severity in the host, ranging from asymptomatic to fatal. |
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