Baihetiya Baierna is Awarded American Heart Association Fellowship

Baihetiya Baierna, a PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Silvia Moreno, has been awarded a fellowship from the American Heart Association. The fellowship was awarded to study the Synthesis of ubiquinone in the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii.

“Toxoplasma gondii infects approximately one third of the world human population. The infection can cause serious complications in people with a suppressed immune system. Barna’s research aims at validating novel T. gondii mitochondrial proteins as novel chemotherapeutic targets for improved chemotherapy of toxoplasmosis. This is important because the present drugs are not effective against the chronic stages of the infection. She has developed novel strategies for the discovery of new mitochondrial proteins and already found a novel enzymatic activity highly divergent from the mammalian counterpart. The outcome of this project will expand the knowledge of the T. gondii mitochondrion, as well as helping with the identification of viable drug targets.”