Dr. Wilson is Professor of Global Health in the Departments of Microbiology & Immunology and Internal Medicine. Her research addresses the immune and molecular biology of the pathogenic Leishmania species protozoa. Her studies approach the disease through both laboratory and field-based studies in endemic countries. Goals are to determine the host and parasite factors leading to chronic symptomatic infection in humans and in animal models.

Dr. Wilson's research studies address the molecular, cellular and immunobiology of infection with the Leishmania species protozoa. Human infection with these parasites leads to a wide spectrum of clinical syndromes. Both human immunogenetic and parasite-encoded virulence factors lead to divergent disease manifestations. Dr. Wilson’s studies focus on the contributions of both host and parasite molecular characteristics that determine the outcome of leishmaniasis.

Leishmania are usually spread through the bite of an insect vector, which deposits parasites in the skin of the host. There they transiently pass through neutrophils before moving to mononuclear cells. Although there is evidence that most parasites reside intracellularly in macrophages during chronic infection, parasites can also infect adipocytes and keratinocytes. Either infection with or transient exposure to Leishmania causes dramatic changes in gene expression in many host cells they encounter. There is evidence that these early changes influence the outcome of chronic disease. Lab members are documenting these alterations through study of host proteomes, mRNAs and host microRNAsas well as parasite-encoded virulence molecules underlying these changes. Projects utilize murine and hamster models, as well as cultured human and murine cells to address the contributions of macrophages, monocyte subsets, neutrophils, dendritic cells and keratinocytes to the local immune responses. The group hypothesizes that Leishmania manipulate the local and systemic immune response through the release of exosomes containing virulence-related proteins into the host environment. Techniques of flow cytometry, protein chemistry, mass spectrometry, confocal microscopy, gene knockout/transgenic parasites and in vivo imaging of luminescent or fluorescent parasites are used to address these goals.

Dr. Wilson works on collaborative studies with faculty members in three countries in low- or middle-income countries with endemic leishmaniasis (India, Brazil and Ghana), investigating the epidemiological, insect and host factors differentiating whether people will develop asymptomatic or symptomatic infection. Many of these studies are extensions of work done in the laboratory. The Wilson lab works toward application of molecular techniques to understand both human genetic and molecular parasitic determinants leading to the diverse forms of human leishmaniasis. Genotyping has identified different HLA alleles that associate with susceptibility, and have provided the basis for transgenic mouse studies in the lab. Additional studies of parasite genomes, and polymorphisms within genomes, are revealing contributions of parasite strain to the pathologic changes observed in leishmaniasis.