Biography

Dr. Carruthers and his research team study the pathogenesis of toxoplasmosis, a disease of humans and animals caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. A cousin of the malaria parasite, T. gondii causes congenital birth defects in infants, loss of vision in otherwise healthy adults or life threatening myocarditis or encephalitis in immunocompromised individuals. His team has discovered parasite virulence factors that function in host cell invasion, immune evasion, nutrient acquisition and lytic egress from host cells causing tissue damage and inflammation. His group has also demonstrated the efficacy of novel experimental therapeutic compounds for treating the chronic phase of infection.
After completing his PhD training in his native country Canada, Dr. Carruthers performed postdoctoral studies at The Rockefeller University and Washington University in St. Louis before joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2006 he was recruited to the University of Michigan where he leads a team of 8-10 investigators. Dr. Carruthers was a recipient of a Burroughs Wellcome New Investigator in Molecular Parasitology and he has served on study sections for the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, amongst other international funding agencies. He serves on several journal editorial boards, is a Section Editor for PLoS Pathogens, a member of the Faculty of 1000 and is an elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Carruthers also serves as an Associate Director for the Cellular and Molecular Biology graduate training program at UM. The National Institutes of Health and the Stanley Medical Research Institute fund studies conducted in his laboratory.