Nicholas Katris

For the past decade, I have developed a strong interest in understanding how unicellular eukaryotes and parasites succeed to sense, respond, and adapt to their host and their environment for their survival. I am particularly interested in Apicomplexan parasites. I have worked mainly on the agents of malaria Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium berghei, and have a major focus on the agent of toxoplasmosis, Toxoplasma gondii. Using these models, I gained expert knowledge in multiple fields of parasite research, particularly in molecular biology, imaging, cellular biology, and lipidomics/metabolomics. I began my career exploring parasite reverse genetics and molecular systems which, partnered with CRISPR/Cas9, can be utilised to manipulate the parasite genome for efficient knock-ins and knock-outs. During my PhD I specialized in microscopy including Transmission Electron Microscopy (EM) and 3D-SIM Super-Resolution microscopy. I learnt EM at the Dept. of Botany at University of Melbourne. I learnt the entire sample preparation process from fixation to embedding in resin, slicing stubs on a microtome and observing samples on the microscope. I also have extensive experience in 3D-SIM, where I frequently resolved fine protein cytoskeletal structures to the scale of nanometre resolution. During my Post-Doc, I moved to Grenoble where I continued to work on Apicomplexan parasites, but I switched focus to metabolomics, specifically mass spectrometry-based approaches investigating lipidomics and fluxomics. I am now capable of handling the entire pipeline of lipid analysis from extraction, to separation of individual lipid species, to operating the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) and subsequent data analysis. Parasites are metabolically unique and have a combination of both plant and animal features. This gives these parasitic protozoans considerable metabolic plasticity which makes them worthy of research for they are just as much a fascinating example of evolutionary biochemistry as they are adaptable and lethal infectious agents. I am excited by all aspects of disease-causing parasite biology and the techniques we develop and utilize to better understand them.