LauraIsobelPost-doctoral fellow, UCSD

Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

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My work addresses some of the major challenges in parasitic diseases, by combining basic biological approaches to investigate disease determinants with applications for vaccine and drug development. My early research focused on the identification of determinants of visceral leishmaniasis by comparing cutaneous and visceral Leishmania laboratory strains and clinical isolates. I am now studying the factors that mediate Trypanosoma cruzi organ tropism and progression from asymptomatic infection to chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy. In addition, I am part of our lab's efforts to identify and develop compounds active against leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and sleeping sickness by high throughput screening.

PUBLICATIONS

Design of Gallinamide A Analogs as Potent Inhibitors of the Cysteine Proteases Human Cathepsin L and Trypanosoma cruzi Cruzain. J Med Chem. 2019 Oct 24;62(20):9026-9044. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b00294. Epub 2019 Oct 4. Boudreau PD, Miller BW, McCall LI, Almaliti J, Reher R, Hirata K, Le T, Siqueira-Neto JL, Hook V, Gerwick WH.

Cysteine proteases in protozoan parasites. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2018 Aug 23;12(8):e0006512. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006512. eCollection 2018 Aug. Review. Siqueira-Neto JL, Debnath A, McCall LI, Bernatchez JA, Ndao M, Reed SL, Rosenthal PJ.

Experimental Chagas disease-induced perturbations of the fecal microbiome and metabolome. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2018 Mar 12;12(3):e0006344. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006344. eCollection 2018 Mar. McCall LI, Tripathi A, Vargas F, Knight R, Dorrestein PC, Siqueira-Neto JL.

Rapid Chagas Disease Drug Target Discovery Using Directed Evolution in Drug-Sensitive Yeast. ACS Chem Biol. 2017 Feb 17;12(2):422-434. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.6b01037. Ottilie S, Goldgof GM, Calvet CM, Jennings GK, LaMonte G, Schenken J, Vigil E, Kumar P, McCall LI, Lopes ES, Gunawan F, Yang J, Suzuki Y, Siqueira-Neto JL, McKerrow JH, Amaro RE, Podust LM, Durrant JD, Winzeler EA.

Location, Location, Location: Five Facts about Tissue Tropism and Pathogenesis. PLoS Pathog. 2016 May;12(5):e1005519. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005519. No abstract available. McCall LI, Siqueira-Neto JL, McKerrow JH.

Synthesis and Evaluation of Oxyguanidine Analogues of the Cysteine Protease Inhibitor WRR-483 against Cruzain. ACS Med Chem Lett. 2016 Jan 14;7(1):77-82. doi: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.5b00336. Jones BD, Tochowicz A, Tang Y, Cameron MD, McCall LI, Hirata K, Siqueira-Neto JL, Reed SL, McKerrow JH, Roush WR.

Machine Learning Models and Pathway Genome Data Base for Trypanosoma cruzi Drug Discovery. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015;9(6):e0003878. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003878. Ekins S, de Siqueira-Neto JL, McCall LI, Sarker M, Yadav M, Ponder EL, Kallel EA, Kellar D, Chen S, Arkin M, Bunin BA, McKerrow JH, Talcott C.

Targeting Ergosterol biosynthesis in Leishmania donovani: essentiality of sterol 14 alpha-demethylase. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015 Mar;9(3):e0003588. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003588. McCall LI, El Aroussi A, Choi JY, Vieira DF, De Muylder G, Johnston JB, Chen S, Kellar D, Siqueira-Neto JL, Roush WR, Podust LM, McKerrow JH.

Adaptation of Leishmania donovani to cutaneous and visceral environments: in vivo selection and proteomic analysis. J Proteome Res. 2015 Feb 6;14(2):1033-59. doi: 10.1021/pr5010604. Epub 2015 Jan 13. McCall LI, Zhang WW, Dejgaard K, Atayde VD, Mazur A, Ranasinghe S, Liu J, Olivier M, Nilsson T, Matlashewski G.

Genetic analysis of Leishmania donovani tropism using a naturally attenuated cutaneous strain. PLoS Pathog. 2014 Jul;10(7):e1004244. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1004244. Zhang WW, Ramasamy G, McCall LI, Haydock A, Ranasinghe S, Abeygunasekara P, Sirimanna G, Wickremasinghe R, Myler P, Matlashewski G.

Determinants of disease phenotype in trypanosomatid parasites. Trends Parasitol. 2014 Jul;30(7):342-9. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2014.05.001. Epub 2014 Jun 16. Review. McCall LI, McKerrow JH.

A2 and other visceralizing proteins of Leishmania: role in pathogenesis and application for vaccine development. Subcell Biochem. 2014;74:77-101. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-7305-9_3. Review. Fernandes AP, Canavaci AM, McCall LI, Matlashewski G.

Determinants for the development of visceral leishmaniasis disease. PLoS Pathog. 2013 Jan;9(1):e1003053. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003053. Epub 2013 Jan 3. Review. McCall LI, Zhang WW, Matlashewski G.

Leishmanization revisited: immunization with a naturally attenuated cutaneous Leishmania donovani isolate from Sri Lanka protects against visceral leishmaniasis. Vaccine. 2013 Feb 27;31(10):1420-5. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2012.11.065. Epub 2012 Dec 7. McCall LI, Zhang WW, Ranasinghe S, Matlashewski G.

Role of cytosolic glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in visceral organ infection by Leishmania donovani. Eukaryot Cell. 2013 Jan;12(1):70-7. doi: 10.1128/EC.00263-12. Epub 2012 Nov 2. Zhang WW, McCall LI, Matlashewski G.

Involvement of the Leishmania donovani virulence factor A2 in protection against heat and oxidative stress. Exp Parasitol. 2012 Oct;132(2):109-15. doi: 10.1016/j.exppara.2012.06.001. Epub 2012 Jun 9. McCall LI, Matlashewski G.

Intracellular eukaryotic parasites have a distinct unfolded protein response. PLoS One. 2011 Apr 29;6(4):e19118. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019118. Gosline SJ, Nascimento M, McCall LI, Zilberstein D, Thomas DY, Matlashewski G, Hallett M.

Localization and induction of the A2 virulence factor in Leishmania: evidence that A2 is a stress response protein. Mol Microbiol. 2010 Jul;77(2):518-30. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2010.07229.x. Epub 2010 May 24. McCall LI, Matlashewski G.