Sam Obado, PhD

The focus of the Obado lab is understanding the structural and functional relationship between the nuclear pore complex (NPC), which mediates nucleocytoplasmic transport, and RNA processing and export in trypanosomes. Trypanosomes are a diverse family of protozoans that are obligatory parasites of invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants. Trypanosomes (including Leishmania) cause major public health and economic problems in the developing world. and are a growing problem in the southern states of the United States in the form of Chagas disease. Collectively, Human African Trypanosomiasis (caused by Trypanosoma brucei), American trypanosomiasis or Chagas’ disease (Trypanosoma cruzi) and Leishmaniasis (Leishmaniaspp), affects more than 27 million people worldwide and cause approximately ~150,000 deaths annually. The RNA export pathway in trypanosomes is evolutionarily divergent from those of its vertebrate hosts as evidenced by the composition and architecture of the trypanosome NPC. The goal of the lab is to combine protein-protein interactome mapping with cellular and structural biology to define the composition of the transcription-export complexes and uncover new RNA export pathways in these organisms of public health importance.