Jaime Costales, PhD.

JACOSTALESC@puce.edu.ec    

Research groups: Infectious and tropical diseases

OneHealth

Research areas: Epidemiology / Parasitology / Infectious, immunological and chronic diseases / OneHealth. 

   Current research:  

• Trypanosoma cruzi host/parasite interactions and epidemiology of Chagas disease in Ecuador.

  Education: 

• 2008. Postdoctoral fellow Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Harvard University.
• 2004. PhD. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Ohio University, OH, USA.
• 1999. Bachelor in Biology. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. 

  Current position: 

• CISeAL Director. 2023 - present.
• Principal Investigator at the Center for Research on Health in Latin America. (Immunology, Parasitology, Molecular Biology).
• Professor at the School of Biological Sciences. College of Exact and Natural Sciences. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador.

  Recent publications: 

• Bates, B.R., Villegas-Botero, A., Costales, J.A, Moncayo, A.L., Tami, A., Carvajal, A. & Grijalva, M.J. (2022) COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Three Latin American Countries: Reasons Given for Not Becoming Vaccinated in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, Health Communication, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2035943

• Hernandez-Castro, L.E., Villacís, A.G., Jacobs, A., Cheaib, B., Day, C.C., Ocaña-Mayorga, S., Yumiseva, C.A., Bacigalupo, A., Andersson, B., Matthews, L., Landguth, E.L., Costales, J.A., Llewellyn, M.S., Grijalva, M.J. (2022) Population genomics and geographic dispersal in Chagas disease vectors: Landscape drivers and evidence of possible adaptation to the domestic setting. PLOS Genetics 18(2): e1010019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010019

• Patricia Mora-Criollo, Reetobrata Basu, Yanrong Qian, Jaime A Costales, Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, Mario J Grijalva, John Joseph Kopchick. The Effect of the GH/IGF-1 Axis During Trypanosoma Cruzi Infection, Journal of the Endocrine Society, Volume 5, Issue Supplement_1, April-May 2021, Pages A492–A493, https://doi.org/10.1210/jendso/bvab048.1007

• Vela, A., Coral-Almeida, M., Sereno, D., Costales, J.A., Barnabé C, Brenière SF (2021) In vitro susceptibility of Trypanosoma cruzi discrete typing units (DTUs) to benznidazole: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 15(3): e0009269. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009269

• Talavera-López, C., Messenger, L.A., Lewis, M.D., Yeo, M., Reis-Cunha, J.L., Matos, G.M., Bartholomeu, D.C., Calzada, J.E., Saldaña, A,, Ramírez, J.D., Guhl, F., Ocaña-Mayorga, S., Costales, J.A., Gorchakov, R., Jones, K., Nolan, M.S, Teixeira, S.M.R., Carrasco, H.J., Bottazzi, M.E., Hotez, P.J., Murray, K.O., Grijalva, M.J., Burleigh, B., Grisard, E.C., Miles, M.A. and Andersson, B. (2021). Repeat-Driven Generation of Antigenic Diversity in a Major Human Pathogen, Trypanosoma cruzi. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol. 11(77):614665. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.614665

• Maiguashca Sánchez, J., Sueto, S. O. B., Schwabl, P., Grijalva, M. J., Llewellyn, M. S., & Costales, J. A. (2020). Remarkable genetic diversity of Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma rangeli in two localities of southern Ecuador identified via deep sequencing of mini-exon gene amplicons. Parasites & Vectors, 13(1), 252. doi:10.1186/s13071-020-04079-1

• Schwabl, P., Maiguashca Sánchez, J., Costales, J. A., Ocaña-Mayorga, S., Segovia, M., Carrasco, H. J., . . . Llewellyn, M. S. (2020). Culture-free genome-wide locus sequence typing (GLST) provides new perspectives on Trypanosoma cruzi dispersal and infection complexity. PLOS Genetics, 16(12), e1009170. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1009170

• Bates, B. R., Moncayo, A. L., Costales, J. A., Herrera-Cespedes, C. A., & Grijalva, M. J. (2020). Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Towards COVID-19 Among Ecuadorians During the Outbreak: An Online Cross-Sectional Survey. Journal of community health, 10.1007/s10900-020-00916-7. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-020-00916-7

• Restrepo Zambrano, M., Rouset, F., Carrasco, O., Echeverría Murillo, D., Costales, J., Brenière, S. (2019). Congenital Chagas Disease in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Maternal Screening at Delivery and Evaluation of Risk Factors Associated with Vector Exposure. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 101(6):1350-1358. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.19-0340

• Grillet, M.E., Hernández-Villena, J.V., Llewellyn, M.S., Paniz-Mondolfi, A.E., Tami, A., Vincenti-Gonzalez, M.F., Marquez, M., Mogollon-Mendoza, A.C., Hernandez-Pereira, C.E., Plaza-Morr, J.D., Blohm, G., Grijalva, M.J., Costales, J.A., et al. (2019) Venezuela's humanitarian crisis, resurgence of vector-borne diseases, and implications for spillover in the region. The Lancet Infectious Diseases 19(5):e149-e161. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(18)30757-6

• Schwabl, P., Imamura, H., Van den Broeck, F., Costales, J. A., Maiguashca-Sánchez, J., Miles, M. A., . . . Llewellyn, M. S. (2019). Meiotic sex in Chagas disease parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Nature Communications 10(1), 3972. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11771-z

• Hernandez-Castro, L.E., Paterno, M., Villacís, A.G., Andersson, B., Costales, J.A., De Noia, M., Ocaña-Mayorga, S., Yumiseva, C.A., Grijalva, M. J., Llewellyn, M.S. (2017). 2b-RAD genotyping for population genomic studies of Chagas disease vectors: Rhodnius ecuadoriensis in Ecuador. PLoS neglected tropical diseases 11(7), e0005710. 

Libros

• Costales, J. A. (2017). 26 - Cell invasion by Trypanosoma cruzi and the type I interferon response. In J. Telleria & M. Tibayrenc (Eds.), American Trypanosomiasis Chagas Disease (Second Edition) (pp. 605-627). London: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801029-7.00027-7

   ReseachGate:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jaime_Costales