Tarleton, Rick
Research Interest
The research in our lab focuses on the immunology and pathogenesis of Trypanosoma cruzi infection and the resulting disease syndrome known as Chagas disease. Currently, there are no vaccines for prevention of T. cruzi infection and current chemotherapeutic regimens have had limited success. We are interested in answering three questions to learn more about the immunology and pathogenesis of T. cruzi:
1. How is immune control initiated and maintained during the infection?
2. How does T. cruzi manage to avoid immune clearance and maintain an infection for decades in hosts?
3. What is the relationship between immunity, parasite persistence, and disease development?