Baker Institute |  Faculty

Judy Appleton, PhD

Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Immunology

Mucosal Immunity, Nematodes, Immunoparasitology Laboratory

The serpentine path traveled by a T. spiralis larva through a single layer of intestinal epithelial cells can be traced in the fluorescently labeled tyvelose it deposited in its wake. There are no parasites visible in this field. The nuclei of dead cells stain intensely and uniformly red or, where they overlap with tyvelose, yellow. Nuclei of the live cells in the surrounding monolayer are very lightly fluorescent.

Roundworms, or nematodes are important causes of diseases in animals, yet relatively little is known about how they sustain themselves in the animals that they infect. Our research aims to elucidate and exploit the ways by which the host's immune response interferes with parasitism by nematodes. We are currently studying two important pathogens, Trichinella spiralis and Parelaphostrongylus tenuis. The latter organism is a significant cause of disease in sheep, goats, alpacas and llamas in the Northeast. Our goals for the P. tenuis work are twofold: first, to understand the immune response to infection and second, to design vaccines to prevent disease. Our interest in T. spiralis concerns the most fundamental question in infectious disease, specifically, how does one organism parasitize another?