Tajie Harris, PhD
Tajie Harris, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience, was awarded a five-year $2.6 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, titled “Caspase-8 mediated control of CNS infection.”
The Harris Lab studies how the immune system and nervous system work together to control infections in the brain. For the past several years, the Harris Lab has been interested in how the death of cells is linked to inflammation and the control of infection. The lab studies a protozoan parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which infects nearly one-third of the human population. While the infection is common, symptoms are not in people with healthy immune systems. For this reason, the Harris lab aims to understand how the immune system benefits the brain by warding off pathogens.
One important way that cells can rid themselves of pathogens that must reside inside cells is for them to die. Cell death is a highly regulated process in many cell types, including those in the brain, where neurons must survive to preserve brain function. The Harris lab has found that the cell death regulator, caspase-8, is needed to defend the brain again T. gondii infection.
The current grant will support studies to test the hypothesis that neurons, astrocytes, and CD8+ T cells need to die by caspase-8 mediated cell death in order protect the brain from infection. Overall, the lab aims to understand how the brain balances the need for cells to survive while also needing to combat pathogens.
Marieke Jones, PhD, from the Department of Public Health Sciences, serves as a collaborator on this grant.
Filed Under: Research