Dr. Tonatiuh Melgarejo

Area of study: Human Nutrition
Email: tmelgare@ksu.edu
Website: Homepage

“The inborn (innate) immune system plays a central role in maintaining health and combating disease. Our research is focused on the so-called “host defense peptides”, HDPs (a.k.a. “antimicrobial peptides”), which are key elements of an innate immune response. We have chosen a comparative approach and study both domestic as well as wild-living animal species, and our attention is focused on both the antimicrobial as well as broader host defense properties of these important innate immune components. The classical “antimicrobial peptides” are as such not only implicated in host defense against infection, but also in various other immune reactions, inflammation, and wound-repair processes. Evidence is also accumulating for anticancer properties of certain HDPs. Developing strategies to effectively enhance the body’s natural antitumor responses is one promising scientific path, and one through which HDPs are likely to have a direct clinical application.”