To improve serological diagnostics, it is necesssary study pathogen proteins that elicit immune system responses. The protein antigens used in current Chagas disease serology assays were discovered over three decades prior using previous generation of experimetnal techniques. Recent advances in phage display library construciton, immunoprecipitation and nucleic acid sequencing have allowed for for novel antigen discovery that can improve the accuracy of current diagnostic assays.

Recent studies from our group utilizing T. cruzi phage display immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-seq) have revealed a novel antigenic peptide not currently used in commercial diagnostics.