The current diversity in eukaryotic life has evolved from the last common eukaryotic ancestor over more than one billion years. Early in this series of events, the group of protozoa that gave rise to trypanosomes diverged from the lineage that gave rise to plants, fungi and animals. So today, trypanosomes are the result of separate evolution of molecular processes over one billion years and they have accumulated many unique and inherently interesting aspects to their biology. The aim of the lab is to determine the molecular mechanisms that underlie some of the unique aspects of the biology of trypanosomes and other related protozoa.