Parasite Persistence, Resilience, and Innovation
The Ernst A. H. Friedheim Memorial Lecture and WRR Sponsored Lecture
Event Details
- Type
- Friday Lecture Series
- Speaker(s)
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Sebastian Lourido, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; member, Whitehead Institute
- Speaker bio(s)
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Toxoplasma is one of the most widespread eukaryotic pathogens, establishing lifelong infections in a substantial fraction of the human population. Its survival depends on adapting to shifting environments as it exits and enters the intracellular spaces where it replicates. The balance between replication and persistence is governed by parasite-specific regulatory programs that remain poorly understood. By developing global methods to survey parasite biology, the Lourido Lab has uncovered a layer of post-transcriptional control that coordinates differentiation and promotes resilience to oxidative stress. These pathways help explain how Toxoplasma establishes chronic reservoirs, providing a unique perspective on how pathogens colonize an intracellular niche.
Sebastian Lourido is an Associate Professor of Biology at MIT and a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where his lab investigates the molecular hallmarks of apicomplexan parasitism. Lourido grew up in Cali, Colombia, before attending Tulane University in New Orleans, where he earned degrees in Studio Art and Cell and Molecular Biology. He then worked as a research assistant in the laboratory of Arturo Zychlinsky, at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, before returning to the US for graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis. Under the mentorship of L. David Sibley, Lourido started his work on the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, identifying cellular pathways that regulate the parasite’s lytic cycle and earning his Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis. In 2012, in lieu of traditional postdoctoral training, Lourido started his own lab as a Whitehead Fellow and was awarded an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award. As a Fellow, Lourido continued working on T. gondii and established the first genome-wide screens for apicomplexan parasites. Lourido was then recruited to his present position where he continues to run a productive research program and co-teaches undergraduate courses in Microbial Pathogenesis and Cell Biology.
- Open to
- Tri-Institutional