George Mason scientist studying parasite-derived vesicles in babesia virulence and vaccine development

Fatah Kashanchi, a professor in the School of Systems Biology and director of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology, received funding for the study: “Parasite-Derived Vesicles in Babesia virulence and Vaccine Development.”

Babesia is a parasite spread by ticks. If humans contract babesiosis, they can experience influenza-like symptoms, bleeding, and organ failure. The condition is rare and affects fewer than 3,000 people in the United States per year.

Kashanchi will isolate extracellular vesicles (EVs) and utilize them to treat primary monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) or dendritic cells (DCs). He aims to determine inflammatory cytokine responses. Cytokines are proteins that affect the immune system.

Kashanchi and his collaborators aim to answer two research questions. 

First, they want to know whether, in response to stimulation from Babesia-derived vesicles (BDVs), EVs can recruit another adapter protein, TIR domain-containing adapter inducing IFN-b (TRIF) (also known as TICAM-1). 

Second, they want to know whether TRADD is also involved in the TRIF-dependent signaling pathway following B. microti and B. duncani EV entry into macrophages and dendritic cells, and if they are responsible for activating NFkB through IKKβ complex.

Kashanchi received $81,120 from Yale University on a subaward from the National Institutes of Health for this research. Funding began in Aug. 2024 and will end in late July 2025.