Professor Jude Uzonna

Lab Name: Parasite Vaccines Development Lab

Country: Canada

Institution: University of Manitoba, Rady College of Medicine

Research Areas: Immunity to protozoa, vaccines, infectious diseases, host-pathogen interaction, sepsis

Lab Website: www.uzonnalab.com

Dr. Uzonna’s research focuses on infection, immunity and inflammatory responses with the aim of understanding host and pathogen factors that regulate resistance and susceptibility to infectious pathogens, particularly protozoan parasites. He is particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms that regulate chronic inflammatory processes during infection as well as factors that influence the development of immunologic memory, which is the ability of the host immune defense systems to remember infectious agents they have successfully dealt with in the past and remake those protective responses faster and in a higher magnitude following a second encounter with the same pathogens. Dr. Uzonna believes that understanding these factors is critical for development of new drugs, treatment modalities, vaccines and vaccination strategies against these diseases. In addition, such understanding could also be exploited for treatment and prevention (by vaccination) of other (non-parasitic) infectious agents whose pathways of causing disease involve eliciting chronic inflammatory states similar to parasites, such as some fungal and bacterial infections. Dr. Uzonna utilizes a variety of animal models (including gene knockout and transgenic mice), genetically modified parasites, and more recently molecular and proteomics to dissect cellular immune responses following infection with protozoan parasites. If you are interested in finding a cure and/or vaccine for poverty-associated neglected tropical diseases, come and join us.