Ke Hu
Arizona State University Campus Immersion, AZ·Microbiology & Immunology
Apicomplexans are single-celled parasites that live inside the cells of their hosts. They cause malaria, toxoplasmosis and cryptosporidiosis.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
Ecology & Evolution
- Topics
Toxoplasma gondii
toxoplasmosis
apicomplexan parasites
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Mar 2030
What they work on
- Determine how the cortical microtubule array, the rib-cage-like scaffold of Toxoplasma gondii, begins its pattern at the apical polar ring, using molecular genetics, microscopy and comparative proteomics.
- Uncover how Toxoplasma's cortical microtubules grow and mature in daughter parasites, using the lab's finding that mature and growing structures differ and can be separated genetically.
- Build a molecular map of subcellular structures in the free-living alga Chromera velia, focusing on structures related to those apicomplexan parasites use to infect host cells.
- Develop transformation tools that allow genes to be introduced into Chromera velia, enabling functional analysis of its gene products.
More about the research
Although they infect very different animals, they share a common internal architecture, including a scaffold of cell-skeleton fibers that shapes each new parasite as it forms. This research asks how that architecture is built and how it evolved. One project studies how Toxoplasma gondii assembles its cytoskeleton, the internal protein framework that gives a cell its shape. A second project looks at Chromera velia, a free-living relative of the parasites, to trace where parasite structures came from.
Why it matters
Toxoplasma permanently infects nearly 20% of people worldwide and can cause encephalitis, blindness and developmental problems such as hydrocephalus in people with weakened or immature immune systems. Proteins that build the parasite's cytoskeleton could become parasite-specific drug targets for new toxoplasmosis treatments. The Chromera tools will give researchers new ways to study how the parasitic lifestyle behind diseases such as malaria evolved.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Thomas Sladewski
University of Connecticut, CT·Biophysics
Characterize the biophysical properties of MyoH, a Toxoplasma gondii myosin motor protein, and determine whether its force generation is required for extrusion of the conoid, the parasite's invasion organelle.
Ana Ramirez
University of Georgia, GA·Biochemistry
Establish an enzymatic pipeline that assembles the conserved glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) core structure in vitro from commercially available precursors, the sugar-lipid anchor that holds proteins on the parasite cell surface.
Wesley Van Voorhis
University of Washington, WA·Microbiology & Immunology
Develop bumped-kinase inhibitors that block the Toxoplasma enzyme CDPK1 and reach high levels in the brain and fetus while staying safe in pregnancy, using computer predictions and repeated chemistry and testing cycles.
The school
Arizona State University Campus Immersion: 36 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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