Vernon B Carruthers, PhD

Dr. Carruthers and his research team study the pathogenesis of toxoplasmosis, a disease of humans and animals caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. A cousin of the malaria parasite, T. gondii causes congenital birth defects in infants, loss of vision in otherwise healthy adults or life threatening myocarditis or encephalitis in immunocompromised individuals. His team has discovered parasite virulence factors that function in host cell invasion, nutrient acquisition and lytic egress from host cells causing tissue damage and inflammation. His group has also defined new mechanisms of stage differentiation and persistence along with demonstrating the efficacy of novel experimental therapeutic compounds for treating the chronic phase of infection. After completing his PhD training in his native country Canada, Dr. Carruthers performed postdoctoral studies at The Rockefeller University and Washington University in St. Louis before launching his independent career as an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2006 he was recruited to the University of Michigan where he leads a team of 7-10 investigators as a tenured Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Carruthers has served on study sections for the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the National Science Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, among other funding agencies. He has also fulfilled editorial duties for several journals including PLOS Pathogens and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He is the current Director of the Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Pathogenesis NIH T32 graduate training program and is a former Associate Director for the Cellular and Molecular Biology graduate training program. Dr. Carruthers is a recipient of a UM Distinguished Professory Acheivement Award, a Burroughs Wellcome New Investigator in Molecular Parasitology award, and he is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Carruthers’ lab has appreciated >25 years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies.

Parasite nutrient acquisition via an ingestion pathway that exploits host ESCRT machinery
Regulating parasite stage differentiation through protein translation
Parasite manipulation of host organelles and cytoskeleton
Parasite persistence, particularly the role of autophagy during the chronic stage of infection
Drug development to cure chronic Toxoplasma infection