Identification of Host Targets for Cryptosporidium

Chelsea Marie of the University of Virginia in the U.S. will perform a genetic screen using CRISPR-Cas9 gene knockout technology to identify the human genes required for infection by the parasite Cryptosporidium, which causes severe childhood diarrhea in developing countries, in order to develop new treatments. They will create pooled libraries of knockout human cells where all the genes in the genome are disrupted to enable high-throughput screens, and infect them with Cryptosporidium hominis, which is the strain causing major health problems in many regions including Brazil and India. They will also develop fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and sequencing protocols to identify those human target genes that are required for infection.