Cysteine Proteases of Pathogenic Organisms

Cysteine proteases expressed by pathogenic organisms play key roles in virulence including host entry, feeding and suppression of host immune responses. This book gives comprehensive coverage to all aspects of pathogen cysteine proteases and brings together numerous scientific advances which have been made over many years. Thus, the biochemistry, molecular biology and structure-function relationships of these important pathogen enzymes are covered in detail. Written by leading researchers from Europe, Australia and North America, this book is essential reading for students and professionals interested in human medicine and infectious disease research.

MARK W. ROBINSON is a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Infection, Immunity and Innovation (i3) Institute at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia. Robinson received a BSc (Hons) in Zoology (1999) and a PhD in molecular parasitology (2003) from Queen's University, Belfast (Northern Ireland). As a postdoctoral researcher, he worked on nematode proteomics and molecular biology at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) until 2007 when he was awarded a prestigious Wain International Fellowship from the British Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to continue his proteomics research at UTS (Australia). Robinson was awarded a UTS Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2008 which he currently holds as an independent researcher. His research interests include proteomics of host-pathogen interactions, structure-function relationships of parasite immuno-modulators and the molecular biology of helminth proteases.