Mai Tran

Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar

Media Profile

“Schistosomiasis is caused by the flatworm, schistosoma, which lives in the bloodstream of infected individuals and can survive for many years. As the second major parasitic disease in the world after malaria, schistosomiasis affects over 200 million people in 74 developing countries and causes severe morbidity and mortality.”

Dr Mai Tran has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship to conduct research at the Biomedical Research Institute in Rockville, Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Mai, a graduate from Grittith University and the University of Queensland, is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Helminth Biology Laboratory at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR). Working with Dr Alex Loukas at QIMR and colleagues in the US and Brazil, Mai’s current research goal is to find a vaccine for the parasitic disease, schistosomiasis.

“Current control schemes for schistosomiasis rely on chemotherapy, however drug therapy has no residual action and individuals rapidly become re-infected after treatment. Therefore development of a vaccine against schistosomiasis is crucial, providing a valuable tool to complement existing disease control and prevention programs.”

Mai and her colleagues have identified two novel proteins called tetraspanins which elicit very high levels of protection in laboratory mice infected with schistosomes. “Tetraspanins are expressed on the surface membrane of the schistosome, leading to the hypothesis that tetraspanins interact with molecules in the bloodstream of infected individuals. This, combined with the high protection seen in laboratory studies, suggests that tetraspanins can be developed into a human schistosomiasis vaccine.”

Mai completed her Bachelor of Science with Japanese at Griffth Universitry and a PhD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Queensland in 2003 and has been the recipient of the Queensland Cancer Fund Scholarship.

The Fulbright Scholarship offers an excellent opportunity for Mai to broaden her current knowledge of tetraspanins by investigating their biological functions in the schistosome. Mai will join the laboratory of Dr Fred Lewis and Dr Matty Knight at the Biomedical Research Institute in Maryland, USA. This is a unique facility which has the capacity to produce large quantities of parasitic schistosomes that will be required for Mai’s proposed research.

She will also visit the laboratory of Professor Edward Pearce at The School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania to gain experience in gene silencing using RNA interference, a technique which she can also apply to other parasites studied at QIMR.