Sep 16, 2020
Dr. Anderson' research focuses
on the interaction between genetics, evolutionary biology, and
tropical diseases. He works with the two most dominant parasites
that infect humans and cause particularly high mortality in
children: those species that cause malaria and
schistosomiasis.
In this podcast, he discusses
Tim Anderson is a professor and
co-leads the Disease Intervention and Prevention Program at Texas
Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. He helps
listeners understand the basics of how
genome sequencing techniques are used to determine relatedness
and other factors in parasites that can then help scientists
understand their life cycle, population genetics evolution, and how
drug resistance develops and might be combatted.
He works specifically in the Myanmar border region but discusses
the differences in infection rates between areas to explain
parasite infection characteristics. For example, they've found that
people who get bit very rarely tend to get extremely sick whereas
there seems to be some immunity in areas of higher infection bit
rates. However, ultimately, this translates to a U-shaped mortality
between these two extremes and he explains why.
Dr. Anderson also discusses some
important work by colleagues and how these different areas of
research come together to create a greater understanding of
parasite activity. He describes what drug resistance looks like and
gives several examples as the resistance mechanics varies with the
action of the drug.
After explaining the basics in more detail and some exciting finds,
he describes his end goal as to better understand the evolution of
drug resistance alongside the fitness cost of drug resistant genes.
This has progressed to following how parasites eventually get
around those fitness costs.
For more, see his information
page,
txbiomed.org/scientists/timothy-j-c-anderson/,
and search his name in PubMed for publications.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK