Summary
Dr. Calvin Tiengwe is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms that regulate intracellular iron homeostasis in Trypanosoma brucei, a “neglected” pathogen that causes African sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in cattle. He did his Ph.D. in Molecular Parasitology at the University of Glasgow with Dr. Richard McCulloch and Prof. Dave Barry studying nuclear DNA replication in T. brucei. After his Ph.D., he then did two consecutive postdocs in the USA at Johns Hopkins Medical School (Paul Englund lab) and SUNY Buffalo (Jay Bangs lab). In the Bangs' lab, he studied how virulence factors are transported to and maintained at the cell surface of trypanosomes – a critical aspect for understanding host-pathogen relationships. Dr. Tiengwe's prior experience working with unique intracellular trafficking properties of the T. brucei transferrin receptor led him to be awarded a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale fellowship to set up a research group at Imperial College, London. His current research has the potential of solving an important, long-standing fundamental question - are there alternative eukaryotic mechanisms for iron sensing and regulation of iron homeostasis in the African trypanosome, T. brucei?
For more info visit his lab website: Tiengwe Lab
Publications
Journals
Wincott CJ, Sritharan G, Benns HJ, et al., 2022, Cellular barcoding of protozoan pathogens reveals the within-host population dynamics of Toxoplasma gondii host colonization, Cell Reports Methods, Vol:2, ISSN:2667-2375, Pages:1-16
Gilabert Carbajo C, Cornell LJ, Madbouly Y, et al., 2021, Novel aspects of iron homeostasis in pathogenic bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei., Plos Pathogens, Vol:17, ISSN:1553-7366, Pages:1-34
Koeller CM, Tiengwe C, Schwartz KJ, et al., 2020, Steric constraints control processing of glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchors in Trypanosoma brucei, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Vol:295, ISSN:0021-9258, Pages:2227-2238
Tiengwe C, 2019, mSphere of influence: modifying an old method to study RNA-protein interactions, Msphere, Vol:4, ISSN:2379-5042, Pages:1-2