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Hany Elsheikha

Lecturer in Veterinary Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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Biography

Hany Elsheikha joined The University of Nottingham in 2007 where he holds an academic appointment in The School of Veterinary Medicine and Science. Hany acts as a Lecturer and a module convenor for the Principles of Clinical Veterinary Science (Parasitology). He obtained a first class honours degree in Veterinary Sciences (1993) and MSc (1998) in Veterinary Parasitology from Cairo University, Egypt. He worked full time in dairy farm animal practice 1994 - 1995. Hany earned his PhD from Michigan State University, (Department of Large Animal Clinical Science, 2004), entitled - Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution of Sarcocystis neurona-Agent of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis. In 2005 Hany was awarded the American Society for Microbiology (ASM)/National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) Postdoctoral Fellowship. He was a Lecturer at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt from 2005 to 2006. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health (UK) and serves on the Editorial Board of five peer-reviewed journals and an Ad hoc Reviewer of several journals and funding agencies.

Expertise Summary

I have responsibility for teaching Veterinary Parasitology in the year 1, 2, and 3 modules which teach the principals, epidemiology, pathogenesis and control of the common parasitic infections of domestic and wild animals.

Teaching Summary

My educational research interests are curriculum development and student assessment in active learning formats (J. Vet. Med. Educ. 2009 36(3):291-296). I am in charge of teaching and convening the… read more

Research Summary

My research interests include host-parasite interaction, anti-parasitic drug development and evolutionary aspects of parasitic diseases at the animal-public health interface. We use a… read more

Selected Publications

My educational research interests are curriculum development and student assessment in active learning formats (J. Vet. Med. Educ. 2009 36(3):291-296). I am in charge of teaching and convening the whole integrated clinical and veterinary parasitology curriculum to the Nottingham Veterinary students. I instruct graduate and veterinary students in parasitology, zoonotic diseases, public health, clinical diagnostics; microbial pathogenesis. Also, I direct examination, teaching and tutoring of students in the Vet School.

http://www.horizonpress.com/veterinary-parasitology

Current Research

My research interests include host-parasite interaction, anti-parasitic drug development and evolutionary aspects of parasitic diseases at the animal-public health interface. We use a multidisciplinary approach to investigate contemporary problems in parasite biology, pathogenesis and therapeutics. Main areas of current research activity are listed below.

1. Neuroparasitology. Primary requirements in neurological infections due to protozoan parasites include hematogenous spread, followed by parasite invasion of the central nervous system. However, it is not clear how do these organisms cross the blood-brain barrier leading to neurologic dysfunction. We investigate the mechanism by which the protozoan parasites Neospora caninum breaches this barrier by interacting with the brain microvascular endothelial cells, which constitute the blood-brain barrier.

2. Modeling and molecular biology of parasitic diseases. The aim of this research focus is to develop alternative animal models to understand host/pathogen interactions, and for the development of new diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for parasitic diseases. We developed an experimental invertebrate model to replace the use of rodents in elucidating the pathophysiology of toxoplasmosis and neosporiosis, a leading cause of abortion and infertility problems in farm animals. This research aims at employing therapeutic modalities to interrupt the development of these parasitic infections.

3. Plasticity of Neospora caninum and bradyzoite-tachyzopite switching. Neosporosis is a parasitic disease caused by the protozoan parasite Neospora caninum. In the last two decades, N. caninum has been widely recognized as one of the most frequently diagnosed cause of infectious abortion, stillbirth, and maternal infertility in cattle and neurological disease in various animal species. To survive in the host, N. caninum has the ability to convert to cystic form with a thick capsule both in vivo and in vitro using a poorly understood pathway, this may partly explains the difficulties in the treatment of this infection. Switching between bradyzoite and tachyzoite stages is the key step in the pathogenesis of N. caninum infection. Despite attempts to investigate this biological phenomenon, it is evidenced today that this switching process is a highly concerted multistep process requiring a variety of molecular interactions between parasite, mammalian host cells and environmental factors. Additionally, there is not enough knowledge on the biological, biochemical and biophysical properties of membrane/cyst wall of N. caninum bradyzoite stage and their structure function relationships. This project funded by the RCVS Trust aims to obtain in depth knowledge on the mechanism and factors involved in the transformation between bradyzoite and tachyzoite stages of N. caninum.

4. Molecular pathogenesis and stress tolerance in Toxoplasma gondii. I study host-pathogen interactions that occur during the establishment of intracellular infection by T. gondii in response to stress. As the causative agent of toxoplasmosis disease in humans and animals, T. gondii represents an important public health and economic problem worldwide, where at least third of the world population are infected. While recent advances in the field have provided a new paradigm for parasite survival within the host cell, little is known regarding the molecular and cellular events required to shape a tolerant host cell environment for intracellular development and endurance of this pathogen. It is the understanding of these basic processes that will guide our efforts toward effective prevention or control of toxoplasmosis disease.

5. Educational research. My educational research interests are curriculum development and student assessment in active learning formats. I am in charge of teaching and convening the whole integrated clinical and veterinary parasitology curriculum to the Nottingham Veterinary students.

Past Research

1. Molecular epidemiology and evolution of Sarcocytsis neurona in horses and opossums. I integrated field and molecular biology methodologies to study the epidemiology and evolutionary genetics of S. neurona, the etiologic agent of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) in horses in the Americas. This research work was hypothesis-based. The key question was: Dose S. neurona have a clonal population structure? To answer this question, new methodologies were developed and various approaches were used to unravel the S. neurona genetic structure in natural populations. These studies included the assembly of a large collection of S. neurona strains and other cyst-forming coccidia, development of methods for purification of the sporocyst stage from intestinal cells of opossums and the merozoite stage from tissue culture and the use of DNA sequencing of the ribosomal gene and major surface antigen gene as well as sequence of the 25/396 diagnostic marker. Whole-genome fingerprinting analysis was also used to develop "species identity" or "genetic fingerprint" for S. neurona strains. These methods were applied to characterize the available Sarcocystis strains that have been assessed by preliminary phenotypic and molecular marker methods such as PCR-RFLP as "neurona-like".

2. Therapeutic efficacy of Sarcocystis neurona-specific IgG monoclonal antibodies against equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) in mice model. In this project a panel of IgG monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) was evaluated in tissue culture systems and by using Gamma-Interferon-gene-Knockout (IFN-γ-KO) mice lacking the functional gene for gamma interferon. This study revealed that the IgG response can impede the establishment of infective S. neurona parasites in the mouse and these MAbs are candidate molecules for immunotherapy of S. neurona infection in horses. The potential for use of multiple antigens as protective immunogens in preventing S. neurona infection was raised.

3. Research on besnoitiosis in donkeys and opossums. I isolated Besnoitia bennetti, which forms cysts in the connective tissues of equids (Equus asinus) for the first time from Michigan and for the second time from North America. The first-ever genetic description of Besnoitia bennetti was achieved in association with the study of an epidemic on a Michigan donkey farm. I isolated Besnoitia darlingi from opossums (Didelphis virginiana) for the first time from Michigan, developed methods for its continuous in vitro culture, developed laboratory animal model of the disease, and testing chemotherapeutic agents in cell cultures.

School of Veterinary Medicine and Science

University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington Campus
Leicestershire, LE12 5RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 951 6116
fax: +44 (0)115 951 6415
email: veterinary-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk