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Presenting the $65,000 check to Dr. Engelberg at Boston College are Sir Knights Stuart Drost,
Northeastern Department Commander; Grand Commander, Mark Kay; and Richard Van Doren,
Honorary Past Grand Commander of Mass/RI along with Nancy Van Doren
The research grant award to Postdoctoral Fellow Klemens Engelberg is to study Toxoplasma
gondii, a parasite that infects nearly a third of the world’s population and can complicate
pregnancies and lead to eye disease and blindness.

Ocular toxoplasmosis is defined as an
infection of the eye with the parasitic
single-celled organism Toxoplasma
gondii. Around 20% of the US population
is infected with Toxoplasma, but healthy
individuals stay mostly asymptomatic.
Often undiagnosed, the parasite can
spread from a primary infected mother
to the unborn child, causing a spectrum
of birth defects. Even if newborns appear
healthy, ocular disease (retinochoroiditis)
can emerge during childhood: the parasite
infects cells of the retina, which leads
to retinal lesions and scars (Chorioretinitis) and results in impaired vision and blindness.
Chorioretinitis is present in 70-90% of congenital infected patients and is the most common
manifestation of the disease. Currently available therapeutics cannot prevent parasite
transmission from the mother to the fetus, but can reduce retinal damage in newborns when
administered prophylactically. However, strong side effects during prolonged treatment are
common, illustrating the urgency for improved anti-Toxoplasma therapeutics. In general,
biological processes different between parasites and their hosts offer targets for specific drug
intervention. One such process is the parasite’s replication cycle. Controlled by principally
distinct signaling mediators (kinases) the replication cycle is executed by known and as yet
unknown components that could be exploited for a better therapy.
This research proposes to dissect the signaling network of a parasite-specific kinase and to
expose and characterize its members. The results will reveal new insights into the parasite’s
destructive replication cycle, which creates a jump off point for the development of new and
specific therapeutics to better treat and prevent ocular toxoplasmosis in infants.

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