Institute at Brown for Environment and Society

Amanda Elyssa Ruiz's current project is to identify vaccine candidates for the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis japonica. Schistosomiasis, caused by parasitic worms, affects over 250 million people world-wide and is the second-most socio-economically devastating parasitic disease, after malaria. Given that this waterborne disease is zoonotic and water buffalo - a key agricultural labor force in endemic areas - are an animal reservoir of the disease that contributes greatly to human transmission, Amanda usea the One Health approach to inform our vaccine development scheme.