Faculty Profile

Overview

Dr. Travi received his DVM and Ph.D. in parasitology from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He received postgraduate training in medical entomology and parasitology in the Department of Tropical Medicine of Tulane University. He worked at the Argentine Primate Center as chief of the microbiology laboratory where he was involved in infectious diseases research. He then moved to Colombia where he was deputy director of the Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento de Investigaciones Medicas (CIDEIM) in Cali. Dr. Travi worked there for more than twenty years in the study of tropical infectious diseases, in particular filariasis, American trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis. At CIDEIM he also led the research unit in charge of developing animal models and studying the transmission cycles of parasitic diseases. His interests in Leishmania prevention have spanned from vector control to the identification of immunopreventative tools. In 2005 he joined the faculty of the University of Texas, first at the Health Science Center at San Antonio and since 2010 at UTMB, Galveston. Supported by the Department of Defense and NIH he leads international research projects on the development of molecular field applicable diagnostic tests for parasitic diseases (cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis). More recently, he has focused on molecular diagnostic tests for different arboviruses and Trypanosoma cruzi the etiological agent of Chagas disease.

Research Interests

• Development of point of care molecular diagnostic tests for tropical infectious disease.
• Development of animal models of parasitic diseases
• Drug discovery for treating cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis
• Immunopathology and Immunoprevention of cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis
• Studies on transmission cycles of parasitic diseases