• Question: What have you found out for the moment about the Trypanosome, have there been any other parasites that you have studied and how long have you studied the trypanosomes?

    Asked by yanisabdellioui to Divya on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Divya Venkatesh

      Divya Venkatesh answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      I’ll answer in parts:

      1. In my research, I study a particular set of proteins called ‘SNAREs’. There are 26 SNAREs in the trypanosome and they are quite important to its transport system (which it uses to move proteins and other things around the cell, and which is very important for it to survive in our blood).

      An example of what I’ve found is that around 60-75% of the SNAREs in trypanosomes are the same (or have evolved from the same SNARE) as the ones in humans. This means that the other 25-40% of the SNAREs in trypanosomes are new, or have changed beyond recognition during evolution. (Is it because they helped trypanosomes adapt to their environment? How so?… etc. )

      2. I haven’t studied any other parasites I’m afraid but I’m soon going to start reading this book called ‘Parasite Rex’ by Carl Zimmerman, that is all about different parasites.

      3. I’ve studied tryps (in short) for about two and a half years now during my PhD (before that I studied hearts for three years, and before that, the immune system – it’s been a fun journey :-))

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