The Chlamydia projects are focused on trachoma, ocular infection with Chlamydia trachomatis, which is the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide. Work on the chlamydia projects is lead by investigators from MRC and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Many of these projects are built on a solid cooperation with the Gambian National Eye Care Programme.
Leading areas of research
- Quantitation of the expression of human cytokine and pathogen genes in the conjunctiva during ocular C. trachomatis infection.
- Cellular immunology studies with peripheral blood and conjunctival cells to investigate T cell immunoregulation, tissue fibrosis and identification of effector cells and their antigenic specificity.
- The basis of genetic susceptibility to scarring sequelae of human ocular chlamydial infection (with Prof. Dominic Kwiatkowski, WTCHG at the University of Oxford (http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/ ).
- Determination of the fundamental differences between strains causing ocular and genital infections with C. trachomatis. Definition of an in vivo pathogen transcriptome profile which may establish evidence for chlamydial persistence at the ocular surface (with Prof . Grant McClarty, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/medicine/medical_microbiology/grant_mcclarty.htm).
- Studies of reemergent infection following mass treatment of affected communities and its implications for trachoma control
- Studies of environmental improvement in trachoma control.
