Moreno Lab My name is Baihetiya “Barna” Baierna. I am a cellular biology PhD candidate in Silvia Moreno’s laboratory, where I study mitochondrial bioenergetics in the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. This parasite infects about one third of the world’s population and can cause serious complications in people with suppressed immune systems. Current therapies are limited and do not effectively treat the chronic stages of infection, which motivates my work to explore parasite-specific mitochondrial biology for new treatment strategies. My research focuses on identifying and characterizing the ubiquinone synthesis complex in T. gondii and validating mitochondrial proteins as potential drug targets. Using novel strategies, I uncovered a unique enzymatic activity absent in mammals, making it an attractive candidate for therapeutic development. The outcome of this project expands our knowledge of the T. gondii mitochondrion and highlights parasite-specific features that could be leveraged for improved chemotherapy. Recently, my first paper on this work was invited for revision at Nature Communications, and I was awarded an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship to support this research. I am proud that my project connects fundamental mitochondrial biology to translational potential, and I look forward to continuing this work to better understand parasite metabolism and advance possibilities for new treatments.
