Sylvie M. Le Blancq

Parasitism and chromosome dynamics in protozoan parasites: is there a connection?

Genomic plasticity is a hallmark of many protozoan parasites, including Plasmodium spp, Trypanosoma spp, Leishmania ssp and Giardia lamblia. Strikingly, there is a common theme regarding the structural basis of this karyotype variability. Chromosomes are compartmentalized into conserved central domains and polymorphic chromosome ends. Since antigen-encoding genes frequently reside in telomere-proximal domains, it is tempting to speculate that the genetic flexibility of chromosome ends has been recruited as a tool in immune evasion strategies by some parasitic protozoa.

Reducing the burden of sexually transmitted infections in resource-limited settings: the role of improved diagnostics.

There is a great need for improved diagnosis of curable bacterial sexually transmitted infections among women in developing countries. We found that wider access to new diagnostic tests has a greater overall impact on health outcomes than improvements in test sensitivity or specificity.