Professor
Pablo
Baldi
I graduated in Biochemistry in the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1992 and received my PhD in Immunology from the same university in 1996 with a thesis on new serological methods for the diagnosis of human and animal brucellosis. I continued working on this topic during my postdoc years, but also started my research on other topics related to brucellosis, including virulence factors, acellular vaccines, immunopathology (mainly osteoarticular disease and pregnancy complications) and innate immune response to respiratory Brucella infection. Our group is currently working on all these areas. Now I lead the Laboratory for the study of the Immune Response to Brucella (LARIB) in the Institute for the Study of Humoral Immunity (IDEHU), and I am Associate Professor in the Immunology Department of the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires. We have been also studying the immune response to Trichinella spiralis using the rat model, with a special focus on the consequences of malnutrition on the immune control of the infection. We are currently evaluating potential vaccines against T. spiralis using defined helminth antigens administered through mucosal routes.
As members of a research institute located within the Immunology Department, our main interest is the immune response to pathogens relevant for our country and for South America as a whole, and the development of novel vaccines to combat those pathogens. Our main focus are Brucella spp. and Trichinella spiralis, which constitue important zoonoses in most of these countries. Currently used Brucella vaccines, all based on attenuated strains, present several problems, including residual pathogenicity for animals and humans and interference with serological tests. On the other hand, no vaccine against T. spiralis is available for either pigs or humans despite the high prevalence of the infection all around the world. For both pathogens, our main interest is to develop mucosally administered acellular vaccines that may protect animals from these infections.
As mentioned above, we are working on acellular mucosal vaccines for both Brucella spp. and T. spiralis.