DrCalvin Tiengwe

My laboratory studies how kinetoplastid parasites — a group of single-celled pathogens responsible for diseases affecting millions globally, including sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, and leishmaniasis — evade host immunity. We use Trypanosoma brucei as a model system to investigate how parasites control expression of surface antigens and how glycosylation reshapes antibody recognition. These processes underpin the parasite's ability to cause chronic infection and escape immune clearance.

Our major focus is the bloodstream expression site, a specialised genomic locus that co-transcribes variant surface glycoproteins (VSGs) alongside expression site-associated genes (ESAGs). My group has identified key factors that coordinate transcriptional activation and silencing of surface antigen genes, and has characterised ESAG-encoded enzymes that chemically modify the parasite surface coat. By engineering these enzymes, we define how diverse glycan structures shape immune recognition. Our work aims to understand how genetic and glycan-based modifications integrate to sustain chronic infections, promote transmission, and drive parasite evolution. My ambition is to identify vulnerabilities that can be exploited for intervention.

Our second focus is nutritional immunity — the competition for essential nutrients between host and pathogen as part of innate defense. My group investigates how trypanosomes acquire iron through diversified transferrin receptors and how host iron restriction shapes infection outcome, connecting mechanistic cell biology to the anaemia that defines clinical disease.

I also lead the SMART Livestock project (Surveillance and Mapping of Antimicrobial Resistance in Trypanosomes), which monitors drug-resistant trypanosomes in livestock across West and Central Africa. By linking laboratory molecular expertise to field surveillance, our work addresses the interconnected challenges of antimicrobial resistance, food security, and zoonotic transmission under a One Health framework.