Meet The Microbiologist - The Scientists Behind The Microbiology

How is Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan that causes neuro-invasive disease, transmitted as a foodborne pathogen? Why are cats important in transmitting Toxoplasma infection? Anita Koshy answer these questions and talks about her research on the latest Meet the Microbiologist. Julie’s Biggest Takeaways: The primary host for T. gondii is cats, in which the protozoan can undergo sexual reproduction. Why cats? No one knows, in part because there isn’t a good in vitro system to study cat epithelial cell interactions with T. gondii. Most warm-blooded animals, including birds, can be infected with Toxoplasma. Intermediate hosts can pass Toxoplasma from one to another if one eat these tissue cysts, explaining why Toxoplasma can be a foodborne pathogen. In healthy individuals, the immune response clears most fast-growing cells (tachyzoites) but some protozoans convert to a slow-growing cell form (bradyzoites). In people, these bradyzoites form cysts predominantly in the brain, the heart and the skeletal muscle. Some ser