Genetic determinants of host/parasite interactions in African trypanosomiasis

The zoonotic disease human African sleeping sickness occurs as a result of the parasite jumping the host species barrier and infecting humans. This is followed by interactions with the host to cause disease. The central question of Annette’s research is: how does naturally occurring genetic variation in both the host and the parasite result in variation in disease susceptibility and severity? Moreover, can this knowledge about host/parasite interactions be used to develop new therapies to combat the disease? Annette is exploiting the recent advances in sequencing technology to address these questions using population genomics.