Prof David Piedrafita

Professor
Federation University

david.piedrafita@federation.edu.au

Research Activities

Worm parasites such as the liver flukes, blood flukes and gastrointestinal nematodes infect grazing ruminants, particularly in Asia and Africa, resulting in enormous economic loss to the agricultural sector or subsistence farmers and negatively impacting on efficient food production in developing countries. Some of these parasites also cause significant human disease. At present there are few drugs and no molecular vaccines effective against these parasites. Research is centered in understanding how parasites and hosts interact to provide information we need to understand disease susceptibility and design better vaccines or drugs to prevent and treat parasitic disease. We also use sheep as a translational/therapeutic model for human diseases (e.g. allergy/asthma; drug delivery)

Techniques/Expertise

Parasite Immunology
Research in parasite vaccine development and performance
Genetic control of disease resistance
Asthma/allergy/drug therapeutics

Disease Models

Sheep/Cattle parasite infection models (Haemonchus/Fasciola species)
Therapeutic delivery of drugs
Asthma/allergy mechanistic studies

Other members with similar research interests

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Dr Eleanor Saunders

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Melbourne SEE FULL PROFILE >

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