{"id":2251,"date":"2019-10-31T16:09:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T20:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/?post_type=profile&#038;p=2251"},"modified":"2024-12-20T13:39:29","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T18:39:29","slug":"horacio-frydman","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/profile\/horacio-frydman\/","title":{"rendered":"Horacio Frydman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My research generally focuses on understanding how microorganisms and their hosts interact at different biological levels (e.g., molecular, cellular, genetic, ecological, and evolutionary). Specifically, I am interested in the interactions of the intracellular bacteria <em>Wolbachia<\/em> with their host cells. The infection of invertebrates by <em>Wolbachia<\/em> represents one of the great pandemics on this planet. Even though <em>Wolbachia<\/em> is one of the most abundant intracellular bacteria on earth, infecting up to 70% of arthropods and filarial nematodes, their mechanisms of transmission are poorly understood.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond fundamental questions of host-microbe interactions, understanding <em>Wolbachia<\/em> biology also has specific medical relevance. <em>Wolbachia<\/em> provides new approaches to treat human and animal filariasis\u2014devastating diseases including river blindness and elephantiasis\u2014caused by parasitic worms. <em>Wolbachia<\/em> is also a potential agent to control insect vectors that transmit diseases such as dengue, filariasis, and malaria.<\/p>\n<p>The broad aim of my laboratory is to identify the mechanisms required for maintenance of <em>Wolbachia<\/em> infection through successive generations of their host (vertical transmission) and for infection into new hosts (horizontal or infectious transmission). My work demonstrates that <em>Wolbachia<\/em> preferentially populate the stem cell niche, the region of the fly ovary containing the stem cells. Tropism for the stem cell niche provides a previously undetected route to reach the germ line. The targeting of stem cell niche by <em>Wolbachia<\/em> may facilitate their horizontal and vertical transmission. Our main focus is to understand the mechanisms of <em>Wolbachia<\/em> targeting of the stem cell niche and how it relates to their successful transmission.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #cc0000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/biology\/people\/profiles\/horacio-frydman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" style=\"color: #cc0000;\">Department Profile Page<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #cc0000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/people.bu.edu\/hfrydman\/home.html\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cc0000;\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lab Website<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16528,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/2251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16528"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/2251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4325,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/2251\/revisions\/4325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/mcbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}