Biography
Katerina Artavanis-Tsakonas received a PhD from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, working with Eleanor Riley on the role of NK cells in response to malaria, genetic polymorphisms of NK receptors and their correlation to inflammation. She did a Post-doc at Harvard/MIT with Hidde Ploegh working on mechanisms of antigen presentation and host-pathogen interactions within the endocytic pathway. As a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at Imperial College she worked on the ubiquitin pathway in host-parasite interactions. In 2015, she became a Lecturer in Parasitology, in the Department of Pathology.
Research
Interests:
What can parasite infections reveal about mammalian cell biology?
1) Plasmodium falciparum:
a) immunosuppression,
b) impaired antigen presentation
c) Proteomic profiling of phagosomes (host receptors engaged-parasite recognition)
d) Role of low complexity regions in antigen presentation and immune evasion
e) Mechanisms of antigen internalization, processing and presentation
2) Trichinella spiralis:
a) myotube reprogramming,
b) de-differentiation
c) Proteomic screening of secreted proteins
d) characterization of how each protein individually affects muscle cells can identify factors capable of impacting cell-cycle, angiogenesis, immunity
e) Manipulation/regeneration of terminally differentiated cells
Collaborations:
1) Faith Osier, KEMRI-Wellcome trust Programme, Kilifi