Meet the instructors
Ibrahim Abbasi Ph.D. is an assistant
professor at the Department of Biology and Biotechnology at Al-Quds
university in Jerusalem. Dr. Abbasi received his M.Sc. in
Parasitology from Yarmouk University in Jordan and his PhD from The
Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. He has been
interested in diagnostic work of various parasites including Schistosoma
and Leishmania.
PublicationsJoanne Cono
Joanne Cono, MD, ScM is the Director
of the Office of Science Quality. Most recently she was the Special
Advisor for Science Integration in the Office of Infectious Diseases,
facilitating scientific activities and planning across CDC's three
infectious disease national centers. Previously at CDC, she has served
as an Associate Director for Science in the former National
Immunization Program, Division of Epidemiology and Surveillance, and
in the former Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and
Emergency Response. As Senior Medical Officer in the Bioterrorism
Preparedness and Response Program, National Center for Infectious
Diseases, she helped lead CDC's smallpox preparedness and vaccination
activities and co-led the epidemiological team for CDC's response to
the 2003 US monkeypox outbreak. She has led CDC's Clinician
Communication Program, served as Senior Advisor for Science and Senior
Advisor for Global Health in the Coordinating Center for Infectious
Diseases, and has completed numerous international assignments and
consultancies. During the emergency response to the 2010 earthquake in
Haiti, she served as Chief Medical Officer overseeing CDC's public
health response teams in Atlanta and Haiti. Her current scientific
interests include global health, emerging infectious diseases, public
health preparedness, and One Health.
PublicationsKirk Deitsch
Kirk W Deitsch Ph.D. is a professor of
Microbiology and Immunology at the department of Microbiology and
Immunology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, USA. Dr.
Deitsch received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His
research focuses on how malaria parasites regulate expression of the
var gene family and how they generate diversity within these antigen
encoding genes. Parasites isolated from different geographic
regions typically have completely different var gene repertoires, thus
preventing their human hosts from generating an immune response that
can recognize all parasites. Thus var genes appear to be diversifying
much more rapidly than the rest of the genome. This process of
diversification involves frequent gene conversion events that are
initiated by DNA double strand breaks.
PublicationsKarine Frenal
Karine Frénal Ph.D. is a member
of the laboratory of Dominique Soldati-Favre at
the department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at the
University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her work focuses on
apicomplexan invasion mechanisms using Toxoplasma as a
tool.
Publications
Omar S. Harb
Volker
HeusslerPublications
Omar S. Harb
Omar Harb Ph.D. is Director of
Scientific Outreach and Education at the Eukaryotic Pathogen
Database Bioinformatic Resource Center. Dr. Harb received his
Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky and postdoctoral research
training in cellular and molecular parasitology with Professor David
Roos at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Harb has had a
long standing interest in education and issues of social
justice. He also serves as chair of the board of Al-Bustan
Seeds of Culture in Philadelphia, USA and is a founding member
of the Middle East Biology
of Parasitism initiative.
PublicationsVolker Heussler is a professor in
molecular parasitology and cell biology and acting director of the
Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Switzerland. Dr.
Heussler received his Ph.D. at the University of Bern. His
research group is interested in the role of host cell autophagy in
liver stage Plasmodium development, daughter cell
development during malaria liver stages, parasite egress from liver
cells and survival mechanisms of dormant parasite liver stages.
publications
Demien Jacot
Demien Jacot Ph.D. is a member of the laboratory of Dominique Soldati-Favre at the department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Jacot works on apicomplexan metabolism and the role of protein phosphorylation in parasite invasion and intracellular survival using Toxoplasma as a model.
Publications
Charles
Jaffepublications
Demien Jacot
Demien Jacot Ph.D. is a member of the laboratory of Dominique Soldati-Favre at the department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Jacot works on apicomplexan metabolism and the role of protein phosphorylation in parasite invasion and intracellular survival using Toxoplasma as a model.
Publications
Charles Jaffe Ph.D. is the Michael and
Penny Feiwel Professorial Chair in Dermatology at Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. Dr. Jaffe received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann
Institute of Science. His research focuses on the biochemistry
and immunology of the parasitic protozoa Leishmania, the
development of vaccines and diagnostic test for visceral leishmaniasis
and the role of protein kinases in development of the parasite.
Publications
Publications
Ibrahim Khalil
Ibrahim Adib Abdel-Messih Khalil MD,
MPH is a senior associate at the Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Dr.
Khalil received his MD from Cairo University, Egypt and has previously
served as Senior Program Officer, Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases at
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Khalil's interests
lie in the epidemiology and disease burden of diarrheal diseases
in children.
Publications
Publications
Poppy Lamberton
Poppy Lamberton Ph.D. is a senior
lecturer in Parasitology at the University of Glasgow and an honorary
senior lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health,
Imperial College, London, UK. Dr. Lamberton received her Ph.D.
from the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial
College, London, UK. Her current research focuses on utilising
field epidemiological data, laboratory experiments and population
genetics to understand population structure, transmission dynamics and
effects of long term mass drug administration programmes on neglected
tropical diseases (NTDs) such as schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted
helminths, opisthorchiasis and onchocerciasis.
Publications
Sebastian Lourido
Sebastian Lourido Ph.D. is a fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Boston, USA. Dr. Lourido received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, St. Louis, USA. His research group is interested in the molecular events that enable apicomplexan parasites to remain widespread and deadly infectious agents. These single-celled eukaryotes comprise a phylum of organisms that parasitize diverse animal hosts. Many important human pathogens belong to this group, including the causative agents of malaria (Plasmodium spp.), cryptosporidiosis (Cryptosporidium spp.), and toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii). Dr. Lourido's group uses T. gondii to model features conserved throughout the phylum, such as their reliance on calcium signaling to regulate motility. In addition, they use a combination of several approaches that span phospho-proteomics, chemical-genetics, and genome editing to investigate the unique biology of these organisms.
Publications
Shulamit
MichaeliPublications
Sebastian Lourido
Sebastian Lourido Ph.D. is a fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Boston, USA. Dr. Lourido received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, St. Louis, USA. His research group is interested in the molecular events that enable apicomplexan parasites to remain widespread and deadly infectious agents. These single-celled eukaryotes comprise a phylum of organisms that parasitize diverse animal hosts. Many important human pathogens belong to this group, including the causative agents of malaria (Plasmodium spp.), cryptosporidiosis (Cryptosporidium spp.), and toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma gondii). Dr. Lourido's group uses T. gondii to model features conserved throughout the phylum, such as their reliance on calcium signaling to regulate motility. In addition, they use a combination of several approaches that span phospho-proteomics, chemical-genetics, and genome editing to investigate the unique biology of these organisms.
Publications
Shula Michaeli Ph.D. is a professor at
Bar-Ilan University and dean of at the Mina and Everard Goodman
Faculty of Life Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in microbiology
from Tel-Aviv University, Israel. Dr. Michaeli's research group
focuses on RNA molecules that participate in RNA trans-splicing unique
to these parasites. They are interested in the structure and function
of novel anti-sense non-coding RNAs, as well as the mechanism behind a
novel RNAi silencing event discovered in their laboratory, snoRNAi,
which silences nucleolar RNAs.
Publications
Publications
Jeremy
Mottram
Jeremy Mottram Ph. D. is Professor of Pathogen Biology and a member of the Centre for Immunology and Infection at the Department of Biology at the University of York, UK. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow (PhD) and his postdoctoral training work at the University of California San Francisco in molecular parasitology, with a focus on gene expression and RNA splicing in African trypanosomes. He has been a member of the MRC Infections and Immunity Board (2010–2014) and has been on both national and international review boards for the Institute Pasteur, INSERM and NIMR. Dr. Mottram is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and a Pesquisador Visitante Especial, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Publications
Jeremy Mottram Ph. D. is Professor of Pathogen Biology and a member of the Centre for Immunology and Infection at the Department of Biology at the University of York, UK. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow (PhD) and his postdoctoral training work at the University of California San Francisco in molecular parasitology, with a focus on gene expression and RNA splicing in African trypanosomes. He has been a member of the MRC Infections and Immunity Board (2010–2014) and has been on both national and international review boards for the Institute Pasteur, INSERM and NIMR. Dr. Mottram is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and a Pesquisador Visitante Especial, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Publications
Paco Pino
Paco Pino Ph.D. is a member of the
laboratory of DominiqueSoldati-Favre at the
department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at the University
of Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Pino works on understanding the
mechanisms of Plasmodium and Toxoplasma invasion
and intracellular survival. Dr. Pino has been instrumental in
developing molecular tools for studying gene function in these
pathogens.
Publications
Publications
Isabel Roditi
Isabel Roditi Ph.D. is codirector of
the Institute of Cell Biology at the University of Bern in
Switzerland. She received her PhD from the University of Cambridge,
Wolfson College. She did postdoctoral work with the Medical
Research Council in Cambridge and later at the Institute for Genetics
and Toxicology at Karlsruhe University in Germany. In 1993, she
received the Helmut Horten Förderpreis, and in 2001, she received the
Cloetta Prize; in 2001, she was elected a member of the Swiss Academy
of Medical Sciences. From 2008 to 2010 she was president of the Swiss
National Science Foundation Committee for Career Development.
She was an HHMI international research scholar from 2005 to 2010. Dr.
Roditi has also been instrumental in facilitating the MeBOP course and
serving as the local organizer.
Publications
Barrie Rooney
Barrie Rooney Ph.D. is based at the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent, UK where she works in the group of Professor Mark Smales. For many years Dr. Rooney's has been involved with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and other teams to developed a simple diagnosis method to identify sleeping sickness more easily, safely and cheaply than ever before. For her work, Dr. Rooney was the recipient of the 2016 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Social Innovator of the Year award.
Publications
David S. Roos
David S. Roos, Ph.D. is the E. Otis Kendall Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. Dr. Roos earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his a Ph.D. at The Rockefeller University. Work by Dr. Roos' group seeks to integrate diverse disciplines, from molecular cell biology and pharmacology, to computer science and international public health. Current interests focus on protozoan parasites, including Toxoplasma and Plasmodium. Research in the Roos laboratory has yielded genetic tools for the dissection of parasite pathogenesis and drug resistance mechanisms, new insights into the evolution and function of subcellular organelles, and computational tools including databases making genomic-scale datasets accessible to scientists worldwide.
Publications
Lilach Sheiner
Lilach Sheiner Ph.D. is a research fellow at the University of Glasgow, UK and a PI at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Geneva under the supervision of Dr. Dominique Soldati-Favre and completed her post-doctoral training at the Center of Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia, USA. Research in the Sheiner lab centers around fundamental cellular biology, focusing on eukaryotic parasites, mainly using Toxoplasma gondii as a model organism. She put together one of the most widely used genetic manipulation systems for conditional gene depletion in Toxoplasma and made substantial contribution to the understanding of apicomplexan plastid and mitochondrial biology. Dr. Sheiner is a passionate activist for peace and equality and is a founding member of the Middle East Biology of Parasitism initiative.
publications
Boris Striepen
Boris Striepen Ph.D. is a professor of Cellular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases at the University of Georgia, USA. Dr. Striepen earned his Ph.D. from Philipps-Universitat, Marburg, Germany. His group is interested in the cell and molecular biology of protozoan parasites. His lab uses a broad array of modern genomic, genetic, cell biological and biochemical approaches to understand fundamental parasite biology and use this knowledge to identify and develop targets for intervention. Research topics in the lab include, the function and cell biology of the parasite chloroplast, novel targets for the treatment of Cryptosporidiosis and forward genetic analysis in Toxoplasma gondii. Recently the Striepen lab was the first to develop genetic tools for Cryptosporidium.
Publications
Rick Tarleton
Rick Tarleton Ph.D. is a Distinguished Research Professor of Cellular Biology at the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases at the University of Georgia, USA. Dr. Tarlton earned his Ph.D. in biology from Wake Forest University. Research in his lab focuses on Trypanosoma cruzi infection and Chagas disease; parasite-host interactions; relative roles of immune system and parasite in Chagas disease; antigen processing and presentation by parasite-infected cells and the role of CD8+ T cells in immunity to T. cruzi; genome-wide scans for vaccine and diagnostic candidates; tool development for genome and proteome analysis. Recently the Tarlton lab adapted CRISPR technology for use in T. cruzi.
Publications
Andy Waters
Andy Waters Ph.D. is the Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology and a Professor in Biomedical and Life Sciences at the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Glasgow, UK. Dr. Waters is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. The major objective of his work is to understand the molecular developmental biology that is associated with sexual development in Plasmodium. His lab focuses on three research areas: triggers for gametocytogenesis, influence of host environment on parasite development and the development of tools for the more sophisticated genetic engineering of malaria parasites.
Publications
Kerry Woods
Kerry Woods Ph.D. is a group leader at the Institute of Animal Pathology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Dr. Woods received her Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow where she studied regulators of autophagy in Leishmania with Dr. Jeremy Mottram. Her group studies host-parasite interactions in Theileria in particular networks that occur at the schizont surface, both in terms of host cell signal transduction and the association of the schizont with the host cell cytoskeleton.
Publications
Publications
Barrie Rooney
Barrie Rooney Ph.D. is based at the School of Biosciences at the University of Kent, UK where she works in the group of Professor Mark Smales. For many years Dr. Rooney's has been involved with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and other teams to developed a simple diagnosis method to identify sleeping sickness more easily, safely and cheaply than ever before. For her work, Dr. Rooney was the recipient of the 2016 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Social Innovator of the Year award.
Publications
David S. Roos
David S. Roos, Ph.D. is the E. Otis Kendall Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. Dr. Roos earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and his a Ph.D. at The Rockefeller University. Work by Dr. Roos' group seeks to integrate diverse disciplines, from molecular cell biology and pharmacology, to computer science and international public health. Current interests focus on protozoan parasites, including Toxoplasma and Plasmodium. Research in the Roos laboratory has yielded genetic tools for the dissection of parasite pathogenesis and drug resistance mechanisms, new insights into the evolution and function of subcellular organelles, and computational tools including databases making genomic-scale datasets accessible to scientists worldwide.
Publications
Lilach Sheiner
Lilach Sheiner Ph.D. is a research fellow at the University of Glasgow, UK and a PI at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Geneva under the supervision of Dr. Dominique Soldati-Favre and completed her post-doctoral training at the Center of Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia, USA. Research in the Sheiner lab centers around fundamental cellular biology, focusing on eukaryotic parasites, mainly using Toxoplasma gondii as a model organism. She put together one of the most widely used genetic manipulation systems for conditional gene depletion in Toxoplasma and made substantial contribution to the understanding of apicomplexan plastid and mitochondrial biology. Dr. Sheiner is a passionate activist for peace and equality and is a founding member of the Middle East Biology of Parasitism initiative.
publications
Boris Striepen
Boris Striepen Ph.D. is a professor of Cellular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases at the University of Georgia, USA. Dr. Striepen earned his Ph.D. from Philipps-Universitat, Marburg, Germany. His group is interested in the cell and molecular biology of protozoan parasites. His lab uses a broad array of modern genomic, genetic, cell biological and biochemical approaches to understand fundamental parasite biology and use this knowledge to identify and develop targets for intervention. Research topics in the lab include, the function and cell biology of the parasite chloroplast, novel targets for the treatment of Cryptosporidiosis and forward genetic analysis in Toxoplasma gondii. Recently the Striepen lab was the first to develop genetic tools for Cryptosporidium.
Publications
Rick Tarleton
Rick Tarleton Ph.D. is a Distinguished Research Professor of Cellular Biology at the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases at the University of Georgia, USA. Dr. Tarlton earned his Ph.D. in biology from Wake Forest University. Research in his lab focuses on Trypanosoma cruzi infection and Chagas disease; parasite-host interactions; relative roles of immune system and parasite in Chagas disease; antigen processing and presentation by parasite-infected cells and the role of CD8+ T cells in immunity to T. cruzi; genome-wide scans for vaccine and diagnostic candidates; tool development for genome and proteome analysis. Recently the Tarlton lab adapted CRISPR technology for use in T. cruzi.
Publications
Andy Waters
Andy Waters Ph.D. is the Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology and a Professor in Biomedical and Life Sciences at the Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Glasgow, UK. Dr. Waters is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. The major objective of his work is to understand the molecular developmental biology that is associated with sexual development in Plasmodium. His lab focuses on three research areas: triggers for gametocytogenesis, influence of host environment on parasite development and the development of tools for the more sophisticated genetic engineering of malaria parasites.
Publications
Kerry Woods
Kerry Woods Ph.D. is a group leader at the Institute of Animal Pathology at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Dr. Woods received her Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow where she studied regulators of autophagy in Leishmania with Dr. Jeremy Mottram. Her group studies host-parasite interactions in Theileria in particular networks that occur at the schizont surface, both in terms of host cell signal transduction and the association of the schizont with the host cell cytoskeleton.
Publications