Mooving Along: Determining Distance traveled by Cryptosporidium parvum Sporozoites and Merozoites before Infecting a Cell
Conference Year
January 2022
Abstract
Cryptosporidium is a parasite that causes life threatening and chronic diarrhea in children and immuno-compromised individuals. Chronic infections occur as Cryptosporidium auto-infects the same host and serves as a potential source of genetic variation for the rise of drug resistance. Despite this impediment to drug development, little is known. The end goal is the development of a computer program that can model the evolution of Cryptospordium during an infection that incorporates sexual recombination. Before this goal is realized, the movement of Cryptosporidium needs to be understood. This experiment looked to observe and quantify the movement of Cryptosporidium parvum as sporozoites and merozoites.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Christopher Huston
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Program/Major
Microbiology
Second Program/Major
Pharmacology
Primary Research Category
Health Sciences
Secondary Research Category
Biological Sciences
Mooving Along: Determining Distance traveled by Cryptosporidium parvum Sporozoites and Merozoites before Infecting a Cell
Cryptosporidium is a parasite that causes life threatening and chronic diarrhea in children and immuno-compromised individuals. Chronic infections occur as Cryptosporidium auto-infects the same host and serves as a potential source of genetic variation for the rise of drug resistance. Despite this impediment to drug development, little is known. The end goal is the development of a computer program that can model the evolution of Cryptospordium during an infection that incorporates sexual recombination. Before this goal is realized, the movement of Cryptosporidium needs to be understood. This experiment looked to observe and quantify the movement of Cryptosporidium parvum as sporozoites and merozoites.