Center for Global Heath and Diseases, CWRU Medical School

Friday, March 20, 2015 (9:00 a.m. in Biomedical Research Building 433)

Title: Needle in the Haystack: Combining Intravital Imaging and Mathematical Modeling to Understand How Vaccine-Induced T Cells Find Malaria-Infected Cells in the Murine Livers

Speaker: Vitaly V. Ganusov (Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee)

Abstract: After Plasmodium-infected mosquito transmits the malaria parasite to the mammalian host, parasites (called sporozoites) travel to the liver and infect hepatocytes. Within several days, sporozoites replicate and differentiate into merozoites which are then able to re-enter circulation and infect red blood cells. Removal of sporozoites while they travel to the liver or during their replication in the liver prevents clinical symptoms of malaria and thus sporozoites are a good target for vaccines. We recently discovered that vaccine-induced CD8 T cells form clusters around sporozoite-infected hepatocytes in murine livers and these clusters are associated with parasite removal. In my talk I will demonstrate how mathematical modeling has been used to discriminate between alternative mechanisms for the formation of such clusters and how statistical analysis of T cell track data allows to determine how T cells locate parasite-infected cells in the liver.

Dr. Ganusov will also be giving the MAMS Department Colloquium in Yost Hall room 306 at 3:00 p.m.  Information on this talk can be found here.