Sebastian Lourido

Sebastian Lourido

Associate Professor of Biology; Core Member, Whitehead Institute

Sebastian Lourido exposes parasite vulnerabilities and harnesses them to treat infectious disease.

617-324-4920

Phone

WI-561D

Office

lourido@wi.mit.edu

Email

Lab Website
Gabrielle McCauley

Assistant

617-258-5251

Assistant Phone

Education

  • PhD, 2012, Washington University in St. Louis
  • BS, 2004, Cellular and Molecular Biology and Studio Art, Tulane University

Research Summary

Our lab is interested in the molecular events that enable apicomplexan parasites to remain widespread and deadly infectious agents. We study many important human pathogens, including Toxoplasma gondii, to model features conserved throughout the phylum. We seek to expand our understanding of eukaryotic diversity and identify specific features that can be targeted to treat parasite infections.

Awards

  • Odyssey Award, Smith Family Foundation, 2021

Recent Publications

  1. Temporal and thermal profiling of the Toxoplasma proteome implicates parasite Protein Phosphatase 1 in the regulation of Ca2+-responsive pathways. Herneisen, AL, Li, ZH, Chan, AW, Moreno, SNJ, Lourido, S. 2022. Elife 11, .
    doi: 10.7554/eLife.80336PMID:35976251
  2. A haem-sequestering plant peptide promotes iron uptake in symbiotic bacteria. Sankari, S, Babu, VMP, Bian, K, Alhhazmi, A, Andorfer, MC, Avalos, DM, Smith, TA, Yoon, K, Drennan, CL, Yaffe, MB et al.. 2022. Nat Microbiol 7, 1453-1465.
    doi: 10.1038/s41564-022-01192-yPMID:35953657
  3. Screening the Toxoplasma kinome with high-throughput tagging identifies a regulator of invasion and egress. Smith, TA, Lopez-Perez, GS, Herneisen, AL, Shortt, E, Lourido, S. 2022. Nat Microbiol 7, 868-881.
    doi: 10.1038/s41564-022-01104-0PMID:35484233
  4. Toxoplasma gondii exploits the host ESCRT machinery for parasite uptake of host cytosolic proteins. Rivera-Cuevas, Y, Mayoral, J, Di Cristina, M, Lawrence, AE, Olafsson, EB, Patel, RK, Thornhill, D, Waldman, BS, Ono, A, Sexton, JZ et al.. 2021. PLoS Pathog 17, e1010138.
    doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010138PMID:34898650
  5. Thermal Proteome Profiling to Identify Protein-ligand Interactions in the Apicomplexan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Herneisen, AL, Lourido, S. 2021. Bio Protoc 11, e4207.
    doi: 10.21769/BioProtoc.4207PMID:34859122
  6. CRISPR-Mediated Transcriptional Repression in Toxoplasma gondii. Markus, BM, Boydston, EA, Lourido, S. 2021. mSphere 6, e0047421.
    doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00474-21PMID:34643425
  7. High-Resolution Mapping of Transcription Initiation in the Asexual Stages of Toxoplasma gondii. Markus, BM, Waldman, BS, Lorenzi, HA, Lourido, S. 2020. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 10, 617998.
    doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2020.617998PMID:33553008
  8. Genome-wide screens identify Toxoplasma gondii determinants of parasite fitness in IFNγ-activated murine macrophages. Wang, Y, Sangaré, LO, Paredes-Santos, TC, Hassan, MA, Krishnamurthy, S, Furuta, AM, Markus, BM, Lourido, S, Saeij, JPJ. 2020. Nat Commun 11, 5258.
    doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18991-8PMID:33067458
  9. Genetic screens reveal a central role for heme metabolism in artemisinin susceptibility. Harding, CR, Sidik, SM, Petrova, B, Gnädig, NF, Okombo, J, Herneisen, AL, Ward, KE, Markus, BM, Boydston, EA, Fidock, DA et al.. 2020. Nat Commun 11, 4813.
    doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-18624-0PMID:32968076
  10. Identifying the Target of an Antiparasitic Compound in Toxoplasma Using Thermal Proteome Profiling. Herneisen, AL, Sidik, SM, Markus, BM, Drewry, DH, Zuercher, WJ, Lourido, S. 2020. ACS Chem Biol 15, 1801-1807.
    doi: 10.1021/acschembio.0c00369PMID:32597628
More Publications

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Photo credit: Gretchen Ertl/Whitehead Institute