Dr Michael Urbaniak

My laboratory uses a combination of chemical and biological approaches to understand biological systems at the molecular level. Our research is focused on tropical infectious diseases, primarily the clinically relevant parasite Trypanosoma brucei and closely related trypanosomatid species such as Leishmania. We are studying how the parasites are able to sense and respond to their host environment by using a combination of tools that include genetic, proteomic and chemical biology approaches. We aim to translate the results of this basic research into early-stage drug discovery.