Michigan State University CLS/MT Program

[return to faculty page]

Leonel Mendoza

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Mendoza teaches and oversees the infectious microbiology component of the undergraduate program. Research Interests: Infections caused by fungi and fungal-like organisms, in individuals suffering debilitating diseases or under immunosuppressive therapy, have dramatically increased in the last ten years. Customary drugs, used to treat fungal infections, have little or no effect against newly emerging opportunistic fungi and fungal-like organisms. Furthermore, the available antifungal drugs are notorious for their toxicity. Therefore, new strategies need to be developed to improve the ways we prevent, treat, and diagnose infections caused by the pathogenic fungi, the newly emerging opportunistic fungi, and the fungal-like organisms. Among the emerging pathogens is Pythium insidiosum. In the last ten years we investigated the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and the life cycle of this fungus-like organism, we developed a serologic test for diagnosing infections caused by this organism, and an immunotherapeutic vaccine for its treatment. We are currently dissecting the components of P. insidiosum vaccine to identify and characterized the genes that encode proteins with immunotherapeutic features for the production of genetically engineered vaccines. Another research goal is the development of an animal model to study the prophylactic and immunotherapeutic features of P. insidiosum vaccine. A second research goal is the development of new techniques, using molecular approaches, to diagnose and monitor the infections caused by the traditional pathogenic fungi. In addition, we are also currently studying the link to the Kingdom Fungi of the organism, historically studied as a fungus, Rhinosporidium seeberi.