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Author: Donna Huber

Amplicon sequencing detects, identifies, and quantifies minority variants in mixed-species infections of Cryptosporidium parasites

Donna Huber on October 8, 2025

  Cryptosporidium is a globally endemic parasite genus with over 40 recognized species. While C. hominis and C. parvum are responsible for most human infections, human cases involving other species have also been reported. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence of simultaneous infections with multiple species. Therefore, we devised a new means to identify various species of Cryptosporidium in mixed infections by sequencing …

Large DNA Viruses That Parasitoid Wasps Transmit to Hosts

Donna Huber on October 7, 2025

Many types of viruses have been identified in parasitoid wasps and other Hymenoptera. Parasitoid wasps also transmit several viruses to hosts through the piercing ovipositors that females use to lay eggs. Most viruses that are known to be transmitted by parasitoids have large double-stranded DNA genomes. We summarize the range of interactions that have evolved …

Signals from the head and germinative region differentially regulate regeneration competence of the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta

Donna Huber on October 7, 2025

Competence to regenerate lost tissues varies widely across species. The rat tapeworm, Hymenolepis diminuta, undergoes continual cycles of shedding and regenerating thousands of reproductive segments to propagate the species. Despite its prowess, H. diminuta can only regenerate posteriorly from a singular tissue: the neck or germinative region (GR). What cells and signaling pathways restrict regeneration …

Insulin-like peptides activate egg formation in the Asian malaria mosquito Anopheles stephensi

Donna Huber on October 7, 2025

Background: The mosquito family Culicidae diverged into the subfamilies Anophelinae and Culicinae approximately 179 million years ago. Most female mosquitoes are anautogenous and must blood-feed on a vertebrate to produce eggs. Regulation of egg-producing gonotrophic cycles is best understood in the culicine Aedes aegypti. Anopheline mosquitoes encode all of the hormones that regulate gonotrophic cycles in …

Ghosts of symbionts past: The hidden history of the dynamic association between filarial nematodes and their Wolbachia endosymbionts

Donna Huber on October 1, 2025

Many, but not all, parasitic filarial nematodes (Onchocercidae) carry intracellular, maternally-transmitted, alphaproteobacterial Wolbachia symbionts. The association between filarial nematodes and Wolbachia is often portrayed as mutualist, where the nematode is reliant on Wolbachia for an essential but unknown service. Wolbachia are targets for anti-filarial chemotherapeutic interventions for human disease. Wolbachia of Onchocercidae derive from four …

Pharmacokinetic Analysis of Sustained-Release Buprenorphine Formulations in Owl Monkeys (Aotus spp.)

Donna Huber on September 24, 2025

Buprenorphine is an opioid used for pain management in veterinary medicine but which requires frequent dosing to maintain therapeutic levels. Sustained-release buprenorphine (BSR) formulations can overcome this limitation, but genera- or species-specific studies that determine the time profiles of buprenorphine after dosing are sparse for NHPs. The objective of this study was to determine the …

Recent insights in the development and functions of insect hemocytes

Donna Huber on September 15, 2025

Hemocytes mediate defense responses that are collectively referred to as cellular immunity. Here I highlight recent progress in the study of hemocyte ontogeny and function. Studies conducted primarily in D. melanogaster, mosquitoes and Lepidoptera identify a number of transcription factors and signaling pathways that regulate hemocyte differentiation and proliferation. Recent single cell RNA sequencing studies …

O-fucosylation affects abundance but not localization of select nucleocytoplasmic proteins in Toxoplasma gondii

Donna Huber on September 1, 2025

  Toxoplasma gondii is a highly successful intracellular mammalian and avian pathogen that must adapt to a wide range of intracellular and extracellular environments. A mechanism that may support this is the modification of hydroxyamino acid rich sequences of nucleocytoplasmic proteins with O-fucose. O-fucosylation of possibly hundreds of proteins is mediated by a single highly …

Use of the Slow-Delivery Platform, VacSIM, Shapes the Host Immune Response to Increase Protection Against Influenza Infection

Donna Huber on August 30, 2025

Influenza virus is a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality due to acute lower respiratory infection, even with the widespread use of multiple licensed influenza vaccines. However, antigenic drift during influenza replication can cause vaccine-induced antibodies to poorly neutralize influenza virus, thereby reducing vaccine effectiveness. To help overcome this problem, we leveraged a hydrogel …

Activity of Antibacterial/Antifungal Compounds against the Protozoan Parasite, Toxoplasma gondii

Donna Huber on August 28, 2025

We investigated the antiparasitic activity of several antimicrobial drug leads against Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites and, in one case, bradyzoites. Carbazole and phenylthiazole aminoguanidine anti-infectives, originally developed as antibacterial and antifungal agents, showed potent activity, with IC50 values as low as 2 μM. This potency was comparable to that observed with the tuberculosis drug candidate SQ109 and a series …