February 2017 cover

The genomes of the river blindness parasite Onchocera volvulus and its Wolbachia symbiont. Image by James Cotton; cover design by Samantha Whitham.

Published in Microbiology

Mar 07, 2017

Michael Chao

Project Manager, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

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Turning the tide on river blindness

Characterization of the genomes of the parasite Onchocerca volvulus, the causative agent of river blindness, and its Wolbachia symbiont reveals potential therapeutic targets.

Refers to "The genome of Onchocerca volvulus, agent of river blindness" by Cotton et al. Nature Microbiology 2: 16216 (2016).

Also see related paper: "Genomic diversity in Onchocerca volvulus and its Wolbachia endosymbiont" by Choi et al., Nature Microbiology 2: 16207 (2016).

Michael Chao

Project Manager, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

I first developed an interest in bacterial pathogenesis while at Cornell University. I then earned my PhD in Biomedical and Biological Sciences from Harvard University in Eric Rubin’s laboratory, studying cell wall remodelling in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. From 2012-2015, I continued my training as a postdoctoral fellow in Matthew Waldor’s lab at Harvard Medical School, investigating the role of DNA methylation on regulating fundamental cellular processes in Vibrio cholerae.