Have it my way! How intracellular parasites remodel your cells to their needs
This event has been cancelled.
B/K018, Dianna Bowles Lecture Theatre
Event details
Intracellular parasites, such as Plasmodium falciparum or Toxoplasma gondii remodel the host cells they infect to survive within a human host. To do that, they export or inject a variety of proteins into their host cells to build their niche.
In this talk I will focus on the severe human malaria causing parasite P. falciparum and how it remodels its host red blood cell (RBC). Specifically, I will talk about the rapid expansion of a family of ~20 parasite kinases that are exported into the RBC in only some Plasmodium species, and which’s presence is linked to hypervirulence in humans.
Using a combination of genetics, biochemical and cell biological techniques, we explore the evolution of the kinase family from a single non-exported ancestor that is present in all ~200 Plasmodium species, investigate their function in host-pathogen interaction and explore single compounds that can inhibit the whole kinase family.