Grijalva will receive a three-year $201,839 NIH award this month for his grant proposal, “Characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi in Southern Ecuador.”

Trypanosoma cruzi is the organism that causes Chagas, a parasitic human disease found mostly in Latin America. The disease is spread through the blood-sucking insect triatomines, also called “kissing bugs,” which live between northern Argentina and the southern United States.

According to Grijalva, little is known about Chagas—even though an estimated 10 million people are infected with this potentially fatal disease, and about 200 million are at risk. Even Grijalva—a native Ecuadorian—had not heard about the disease until he came to OU-COM as a graduate student and began collaborating with Edwin Rowland, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of microbiology, on his Chagas research.

Grijalva hopes to shed some light on Chagas by tracking the movement of the disease throughout the region of Loja, Ecuador. He will take samples from the triatomine bugs and from people and other mammals—rodents, dogs and cats—that have been infected with Chagas. According to Grijalva, understanding the transmission of Chagas will help inform country-wide Chagas disease control programs in Ecuador.

“This research allows us to strengthen current Chagas control initiatives, which will benefit millions of people,” Grijalva said. “It also provides an ideal environment for training of students and faculty from Ecuadorian institutes and Ohio University.”

This summer Grijalva will lead an interdisciplinary research team of 25 students—medical, undergraduate and graduate—to Ecuador. About half will be Ohio University students, and the other half hail from universities across the country. They will work together with Ecuadorian students and faculty, the Ecuador Ministry of Health, and both government and non-government organizations.