Access to the skin by African trypanosomes (360G-Wellcome-206966_Z_17_Z)

African trypanosomes are protozoan parasites that cause both African trypanosomiasis in humans and Nagana in animals. They are transmitted by the bit of a tsetse fly. Until recently the disease was considered a blood disease, however evidence suggests that parasites sequester to the skin and these extravascular parasites can be transmitted to the tsetse vector as it takes a bloodmeal. therefore, sequestration to the skin is an important feature of the disease. This project will try to understand the mechanism of parasites sequestration. the project will try to address these questions: are trypanosomes found in the skin different to those found in the blood? Are they expressing different genes that allow them to escape the vasculature and invade the skin? In order to answer these questions, the transcriptome of skin-dwelling and blood-dwelling parasites will be compared. This will identify any gene expression differences that are associated with extravascular sequestration, leading possible mechanisms of tissue invasion. This project will generate important information that will lead to the development of new hypotheses regarding the mechanism of parasite sequestration that will form the basis of future research for my host laboratory.