Parasitology

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor of Parasitology, Institute of Parasitology

QUALIFICATIONS:
PhD

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
The main focus of our lab is the cell biology and the biochemistry of the single-celled protozoan parasites, Giardia lamblia and Toxoplasma gondii. We study mechanisms and structures involved in host-parasite interactions or relevant for transmission to a new host. Of special interest are events linked to stage-differentiation of the Giardia trophozoite to the environmentally resistant and infectious cyst form. We investigate mechanisms of gene regulation, protein trafficking, organelle genesis and maturation, lipid biosynthesis and formation of the cyst wall. Because Giardia has undergone massive reductive evolution and presents evidence for significant lateral gene transfer it is a particularly interesting model for cell biology. The data from the Giardia genome project also indicated that many complex machineries have been stripped down to minimal functions in this parasite. Giardial mitochondria are mere relic organelles but nevertheless essential; peroxisomes and a steady-state Golgi apparatus including associated proteins have been lost altogether. However, Golgi–like cisternae which contain the components for the cyst wall arise de novo during encystation making it possible to study neogenesis maturation and disassembly of these organelles.