Kafatos:Vlachou, Dina

Click here to visit our NEW WEBSITE

The content below is most likely out of date. We also have a new lean and mean openwetware area.

Dina Vlachou Division of Cell & Molecular Biology South Kensington Campus, SAF London, SW72AZ UK d.vlachou[at]imperial.ac.uk

Senior Research Associate at Imperial College, London
.

Education

1989: Diploma in Biology, University of Thessaloniki, Greece
1997: Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Evolution, University of Athens, Greece

---

Professional profile

1990-1991: Research assistant, Division of Genetic and Biotechnology, Department of Biology, University of Athens, Greece. Postgraduate research in insect molecular biology.
1991-1997: PhD studies, Division of Genetic and Biotechnology, Department of Biology, University of Athens, Greece. Research Area: Functional and evolutionary analysis of chorion genes in Diptera.
1997-2000: Post-doctoral fellow, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology/Foundation for Research and Technology (IMBB/FORTH), Crete, Greece. Research Area: Identification of Anopheles gambiae midgut proteins putatively interacting with Plasmodium surface proteins.
2000-2001: RTN Post-doctoral fellow, Department of Parasitology, University of Leiden (LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands. Research Area: Genetic manipulation of Plasmodium berghei and development of alternative tools for conditional knockout and transient expression of genes in the parasite mosquito stages.
2001-2003: Marie Curie Research Fellow, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany. Research Area: Molecular and cellular dissection of mosquito midgut invasion, and mosquito immune responses.
2003-2005: Senior Research Associate, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany. Research Area: Molecular and cellular dissection of mosquito midgut invasion, and mosquito immune responses.
2005-present: Senior Research Scientist, Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Imperial College London, United Kingdom. Research Area: Functional genomics of mosquito/parasite interactions.

Research Interests

-Functional genomic dissection of the Anopheles gambiae tissue responses to Plasmodium developmental stages
-Comparative genomic analysis of the mosquito responses to the rodent parasite Plasmodium berghei and the human parasite Plasmodium falciparum in natural transmission conditions
-Molecular and cell biological analysis of Plasmodium migration through the mosquito midgut
-Monitoring of the sporogonic developmental transcriptome of Plasmodium berghei and its interaction with the mosquito transcriptome

Supervision of the PhD research projects of post-graduate students; Mr Timm Schlegelmilch, Mr Antonio Mendes and Ms Ellen Runn.

Distinctions and Awards

1993, Awarded a PhD individual fellowship by Academy of Athens

2001, Awarded a Marie-Curie Individual Research Fellowship (European Commission, Fifth Framework Program)

Teaching

1991-1996: Teaching assistantship of pre-graduated students at the Departments of Biology and Pharmacology, University of Athens, Greece

Publications

1. Waterhouse RM, Kriventseva EV, Meister S, Xi Z, Alvarez KS, Bartholomay LC, Barillas-Mury C, Bian G, Blandin S, Christensen BM, Dong Y, Jiang H, Kanost MR, Koutsos AC, Levashina EA, Li J, Ligoxygakis P, Maccallum RM, Mayhew GF, Mendes A, Michel K, Osta MA, Paskewitz S, Shin SW, Vlachou D, Wang L, Wei W, Zheng L, Zou Z, Severson DW, Raikhel AS, Kafatos FC, Dimopoulos G, Zdobnov EM, and Christophides GK. Evolutionary dynamics of immune-related genes and pathways in disease-vector mosquitoes. Science. 2007 Jun 22;316(5832):1738-43. DOI:10.1126/science.1139862 |
2. Vlachou D, Schlegelmilch T, Runn E, Mendes A, and Kafatos FC. The developmental migration of Plasmodium in mosquitoes. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2006 Aug;16(4):384-91. DOI:10.1016/j.gde.2006.06.012 |
3. Vlachou D, Schlegelmilch T, Christophides GK, and Kafatos FC. Functional genomic analysis of midgut epithelial responses in Anopheles during Plasmodium invasion. Curr Biol. 2005 Jul 12;15(13):1185-95. DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2005.06.044 |
4. Vlachou D and Kafatos FC. The complex interplay between mosquito positive and negative regulators of Plasmodium development. Curr Opin Microbiol. 2005 Aug;8(4):415-21. DOI:10.1016/j.mib.2005.06.013 |
5. Osta MA, Christophides GK, Vlachou D, and Kafatos FC. Innate immunity in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae: comparative and functional genomics. J Exp Biol. 2004 Jul;207(Pt 15):2551-63. DOI:10.1242/jeb.01066 |
6. Christophides GK, Vlachou D, and Kafatos FC. Comparative and functional genomics of the innate immune system in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Immunol Rev. 2004 Apr;198:127-48. DOI:10.1111/j.0105-2896.2004.0127.x |
7. Vlachou D, Zimmermann T, Cantera R, Janse CJ, Waters AP, and Kafatos FC. Real-time, in vivo analysis of malaria ookinete locomotion and mosquito midgut invasion. Cell Microbiol. 2004 Jul;6(7):671-85. DOI:10.1111/j.1462-5822.2004.00394.x |
8. Dessens JT, Sidén-Kiamos I, Mendoza J, Mahairaki V, Khater E, Vlachou D, Xu XJ, Kafatos FC, Louis C, Dimopoulos G, and Sinden RE. SOAP, a novel malaria ookinete protein involved in mosquito midgut invasion and oocyst development. Mol Microbiol. 2003 Jul;49(2):319-29. DOI:10.1046/j.1365-2958.2003.03566.x |
9. Christophides GK, Zdobnov E, Barillas-Mury C, Birney E, Blandin S, Blass C, Brey PT, Collins FH, Danielli A, Dimopoulos G, Hetru C, Hoa NT, Hoffmann JA, Kanzok SM, Letunic I, Levashina EA, Loukeris TG, Lycett G, Meister S, Michel K, Moita LF, Müller HM, Osta MA, Paskewitz SM, Reichhart JM, Rzhetsky A, Troxler L, Vernick KD, Vlachou D, Volz J, von Mering C, Xu J, Zheng L, Bork P, and Kafatos FC. Immunity-related genes and gene families in Anopheles gambiae. Science. 2002 Oct 4;298(5591):159-65. DOI:10.1126/science.1077136 |
10. Vlachou D and Komitopoulou K. The chorion genes of the medfly. II. DNA sequence evolution of the autosomal chorion genes s18, s15, s19 and s16 in Diptera. Gene. 2001 May 30;270(1-2):41-52. DOI:10.1016/s0378-1119(01)00482-6 |
11. Vlachou D, Lycett G, Sidén-Kiamos I, Blass C, Sinden RE, and Louis C. Anopheles gambiae laminin interacts with the P25 surface protein of Plasmodium berghei ookinetes. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2001 Feb;112(2):229-37. DOI:10.1016/s0166-6851(00)00371-6 |
12. Margos G, Sidén-Kiamos I, Fowler RE, Gillman TR, Spaccapelo R, Lycett G, Vlachou D, Papagiannakis G, Eling WM, Mitchell GH, and Louis C. Myosin A expressions in sporogonic stages of Plasmodium. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2000 Dec;111(2):465-9. DOI:10.1016/s0166-6851(00)00335-2 |
13. Sidén-Kiamos I, Vlachou D, Margos G, Beetsma A, Waters AP, Sinden RE, and Louis C. Distinct roles for pbs21 and pbs25 in the in vitro ookinete to oocyst transformation of Plasmodium berghei. J Cell Sci. 2000 Oct;113 Pt 19:3419-26. DOI:10.1242/jcs.113.19.3419 |
14. Vlachou D, Konsolaki M, Tolias PP, Kafatos FC, and Komitopoulou K. The autosomal chorion locus of the medfly Ceratitis capitata. I. Conserved synteny, amplification and tissue specificity but sequence divergence and altered temporal regulation. Genetics. 1997 Dec;147(4):1829-42. DOI:10.1093/genetics/147.4.1829 |