About

My research focuses on two main areas: tropical medicine, in particular vector-borne and zoonotic parasitic diseases including Trypanosoma cruzi (the agent of Chagas disease), Zika virus, and toxoplasmosis; and emerging infections such as Zika virus and SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. My primary study sites are in Bolivia and Peru, where I study neurological opportunistic infections in HIV, including CNS Chagas disease, Toxoplasma encephalitis, and TB meningitis; manifestations of T. cruzi infection such as reactivation in HIV, congenital Chagas disease, and Chagas cardiomyopathy; and diagnostic test development. I also have projects at UNC’s site in Leon, Nicaragua studying Zika virus infection and its consequences for fertility and in early childhood as well as diarrheal diseases. I also have been involved in several projects understanding the COVID-19 pandemic, including a cohort of patients at UNC that created a biobank of diverse specimens linked to extensive clinical and demographic data, a study of risk factors for infection in food processing and farm workers in North Carolina, involvement in the Respiratory Virus Transmission Network studying household transmission and vaccine effectiveness, and epidemiological analyses of the pandemic in Nicaragua and Bolivia. My clinical interests include HIV and chronic parasitic infections such as Chagas disease and neurocysticercosis. I speak Spanish and enjoy working with North Carolina’s immigrant population in the clinical setting.