College of Veterinary Medicine

Education:

PhD, Biochemical Parasitology, University of Cambridge, England, 1977

Honors and Awards:

SmithKline-Beecham award for research excellence, 1993
Pfizer Award for research excellence, 2000
University of Florida Research Professor, 2007

Research Interests:

Defining molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis in emerging infectious diseases; development of recombinant vaccines and improved molecular diagnostics.
A long-term research focus has been to understand the molecular basis for persistent infections, beginning with investigations of antigenic variation in African trypanosomes and now including persistent infections caused by rickettsias of veterinary and human importance. An important finding has been the discovery of gene sequence mosaics in trypanosomes and Anaplasma. These mosaics are formed by contribution of sequence to genomic expression sites by different functional pseudogenes. This allows extensive surface diversity to be created from the small Anaplasma genomes because of the large number of different combinatorial possibilities. With the completion of genome sequence for these organisms, this research is now extending in two main directions: 1) analysis of gene expression and variation at the whole genome level. 2) development of transformation systems to knock-out virulence genes to develop new vaccines.

Selected Publications:

For Publications Extracted From Medline Click HERE

Barbet AF, Lundgren AM, Alleman AR, Stuen S, Bjöersdorff A, Brown RN, Drazenovich NL, Foley JE: Structure of the expression site reveals global diversity in MSP2/P44 variants in Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Infection and Immunity 74: 6429-6437, 2006.

Felsheim RF, Herron MJ, Nelson CM, Burkhardt NY, Barbet AF, Kurtti TJ, Munderloh UG: Transformation of Anaplasma phagocytophilum. BMC Biotechnology 6: 42-50, 2006.

Alleman AR, Barbet AF, Sorenson HL, Strik NI, Wamsley HL, Wong SJ, Chandrashaker R, Gaschen FP, Luckschander N, Bjöersdorff A: Cloning and expression of the gene encoding the major surface protein 5 (msp5) of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and potential application for serodiagnosis. Vet. Clin. Pathol. 35: 418-425, 2006.

Barbet AF, Agnes JT, Moreland AL, Lundgren AM, Alleman AR, Noh SM, Brayton KA, Munderloh UG, Palmer GH: Identification of functional promoters in the msp2 expression loci of Anaplasma marginale and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Gene 353: 89-97, 2005.

Meeus PFM, Brayton KA, Palmer GH, Barbet AF: Conservation of a gene conversion mechanism in two distantly related paralogs of Anaplasma marginale. Molecular Microbiology 47:633-643, 2003.

Barbet AF, Meeus PFM, Bélanger M, Bowie MV, Yi J, Lundgren AM, Alleman AR, Wong SJ, Chu FK, Munderloh UG, Jauron SD: Expression of multiple outer membrane protein sequence variants from a single genomic locus of Anaplasma phagocytophilum. Infection and Immunity 71:1706-1718, 2003.

Brayton KA, Palmer GH, Lundgren A, Yi, J, Barbet AF: Antigenic variation of Anaplasma marginale msp2 occurs by combinatorial gene conversion. Molecular Microbiology 43:1151-1159, 2002.

Barbet AF, Lundgren AL, Yi J, Rurangirwa FR, Palmer GH: Antigenic variation of Anaplasma marginale by expression of MSP2 mosaics. Infect. Immun. 68:6133-6138, 2000.

Nyika A, Mahan SM, Burridge MJ, McGuire TC, Rurangirwa F, Barbet AF: A DNA vaccine protects mice against the rickettsial agent Cowdria ruminantium. Parasite Immunology 20:111-119, 1998.

Kamper SM, Barbet AF: Surface epitope variation via mosaic gene formation is potential key to long term survival of Trypanosoma brucei. Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology 53:33-44, 1992.