Home Department: Science, Technology & Society
Supported by: Bio-X
Mentor: John Boothroyd, Microbiology & Immunology

Brian’s project aims to understand how the important human parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, can invade almost any cell it encounters. He will do this using a modern version of a classical genetic approach, isolating mutants that are defective in this ability and then sequencing the DNA of those mutants to identify the genes involved. This work will impact our understanding of not only Toxoplasma but also its cousin parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, that invades similarly and is the pathogen responsible for human malaria.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 24, 2016:

Toxoplasma gondii MAF1b Binds the Host Cell MIB Complex to Mediate Mitochondrial Association

Felice D. Kelly¹, Brian M. Wei¹, Michelle L. Parker², Martin J. Boulanger², John C. Boothroyd¹
[Department of Microbiology & Immunology¹, Stanford University; Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology², University of Victoria]

Home Department: Science, Technology, and Society
Supported by: Dean of Research
Mentor: John Boothroyd, Microbiology & Immunology

Brian Wei is studying invasion mechanisms of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, a relative of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum that can lead to serious disease in immunocompromised individuals. His hypothesis behind his work is that T. gondii selectively sheds surface proteins during invasion depending on how the proteins are associated with its membrane. To test this hypothesis, he is using a method to covalently tag specific surface proteins to determine which proteins are shed, providing valuable insight into the invasion mechanism of T. gondii, P. falciparum, and other disease-causing Apicomplexans.

Poster presented at the Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium on August 26, 2015:

Does Toxoplasma gondii Selectively Shed Surface Proteins from its Plasma Membrane During Host Cell Invasion?

Brian Wei¹, Felice Kelly¹, John Boothroyd¹
[Department of Microbiology & Immunology¹, Stanford University]