Gerard Cangelosi, Ph.D.
Affiliate Professor, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute
Affiliate Associate Professor, Departments of Global Health & Epidemiology, University of Washington
Area of Expertise: tuberculosis, waterborne pathogens (MAC and Entameoba histolytica)
The Cangelosi Lab works to reduce exposure to infectious diseases through 1) improved case finding made possible by biomarker discovery and point-of-care diagnosis; 2) improved detection of pathogens in water; and 3) improved understanding of infectious disease epidemiology.
Research
The Cangelosi lab conducts translational research relevant to global health. Specific interests include:
- Improved biomarker discovery tools for infectious disease diagnosis. The Cangelosi lab is developing high-throughput methods to generate novel antibody-like “probes” for pathogen molecules in patient samples. In an NIH-funded project entitled “Accelerated Molecular Probe Pipeline," these methods are being used to identify new biomarkers of intestinal amoeba infections. The project is an international collaboration with partners in the United States, Australia, and Bangladesh. See AMPP page.
- Tuberculosis biomarkers and diagnosis. The Cangelosi lab is working to identify biomarkers of active TB and to develop improved point-of-care tools for detecting TB biomarkers in patient samples.
- Molecular detection of pathogens in environmental and clinical samples. As a method for detecting microorganisms in samples, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is fast, sensitive, and specific. However, its widespread use is limited by its inability to distinguish viable pathogen cells from dead cells and free nucleic acid fragments. The Cangelosi lab has shown that PCR tests for ribosomal RNA precursors (pre-rRNA) can overcome this problem. They are developing pre-rRNA tests for pathogen detection in environmental as well as clinical samples.
- Understanding human exposure to environmental mycobacteria. Bacteria related to the TB pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis live in water, soils, and food. Some species such as the M. avium complex (MAC) occasionally cause serious disease in humans. These environmental pathogens are models for understanding the emergence of new infectious diseases in humans. Genotypic and epidemiological methods are being utilized to characterize the pathogen and environmental factors involved in the acquisition of environmental mycobacterial infections.
Themes
- Diagnostic biomarkers of infectious disease
- Molecular diagnosis
- Molecular epidemiology
- Waterborne pathogens
The National Institutes of Health, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Catalysis Foundation for Health currently provide support for Cangelosi’s research.