Alejandro Castellanos

Alejandro Castellanos, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), part of the Division of Infectious Disease. His research focuses on molecular parasitology, particularly developing novel vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics for intestinal infections such as Cryptosporidium. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and completed postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine and UTMB. His work includes pioneering gene silencing techniques in Cryptosporidium and establishing in vitro models for drug testing. He collaborates with institutions like the University of Washington and Yale University on antiparasitic drug development. His grants include NIH and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funding.

Education: B.S. Biology (2000, National Autonomous University of Mexico), M.S. Tropical Infectious Diseases (2002, University of Valencia, Spain), Ph.D. Biomedical Sciences (2005, National Autonomous University of Mexico), Postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine (2007) and UTMB (2009).

Research Interests: Gene silencing in parasites, multiplex diagnostics, intestinal stem cell models for Cryptosporidium infection, and antiparasitic drug discovery. His lab aims to identify druggable targets and improve point-of-care diagnostics for intestinal pathogens.

Grants and Collaborations: NIH-funded projects on Cryptosporidium gene silencing, Gates Foundation grants. Collaborations include Wes Van Voorhis (University of Washington) and Karen Anderson (Yale University).

Labs/Teams: Molecular Parasitology lab at UTMB, focusing on drug development and diagnostics for neglected tropical diseases.