Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., M.D.

RESEARCH INTEREST

Our research interests center on the intestinal protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica, a leading cause of illness and death worldwide. We focus on molecular aspects of amebic pathogenesis, understanding the host immune and inflammatory response to amebic infection, and developing vaccines to prevent amebiasis. To better understand the host response to infection, my laboratory has developed two new models of amebic infection using severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice: A SCID mouse model of amebic liver abscess (ALA) to study the role of lymphocyte-based and innate immunity in protection against ALA, and a SCID-HU-INT model (where human intestine is implanted into SCID mice) to study amebic infection of the gut and invasive bacterial infections as well. Ongoing efforts aim at defining the role of the gut inflammatory response in tissue damage and controlling infection in both amebic and bacterial infections. Gene array technology is used to define the global intestinal response to enteric infection. We also study a unique multifunctional enzyme (EhADH2) that is critical in the amebic fermentation pathway. This enzyme is not found in other eukaryotes, and we are currently using expression of the recombinant EhADH2 and specific domains of the molecule for structure/function analysis.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS