Interview with Dr. Lena Pernas: Possible Toxoplasma reactivation in COVID-19/LongCovid

Dr. Lena Pernas is a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing. Her lab studies Toxoplasma gondii - a parasite that causes a chronic infection in a large segment of the human population, and has been implicated in a range of neuropsychiatric symptoms. Lena is currently studying if chronic Toxoplasma infections are reactivated in patients with COVID-19 or LongCovid. She is also a expert on the molecular mechanisms by which Toxoplasma modulates the metabolism of the cells it infects, and how mitochondria function as part of the innate immune response that “fights back” against the parasite.