Kafatos:Vlachou, Dina

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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
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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.

Education

1990, Diploma in Biology, University of Thessaloniki, Greece

1997, Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Evolution, University of Athens, Greece

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1990-1991: Research assistant, Division of Genetic and Biotechnology, Department of Biology, University of Athens, Greece
1991-1997: PhD studies, Division of Genetic and Biotechnology, Department of Biology, University of Athens, Greece
1997-2000: Post-doctoral fellow, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology/Foundation for Research and Technology (IMBB/FORTH), Crete, Greece
2000-2001: RTN Post-doctoral fellow, Department of Parasitology, University of Leiden (LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands
2001-2003: Marie Curie Research Fellow, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany
2003-2005: Research Associate, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany
2005-present: Senior Research Associate, Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Imperial College London, United Kingdom

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

Peer Reviewed Publications

Vlachou D, Schlegelmilch T., Runn E., Mendes A., and Kafatos, F.C. (2006). The developmental migration of Plasmodium in mosquitoes. Curr Opin GenetDev. Jun (Epub ahead of print)

Vlachou, D., Schlegelmilch, T., Christophides, G.K., and Kafatos, F.C. (2005). Functional Genomic Analysis of Midgut Epithelial Responses in Anopheles during Plasmodium Invasion. Curr Biol. Jul 12;15(13):1185-95.

Vlachou, D., and Kafatos, F.C. (2005). Mosquito genes that positively or negatively determine Plasmodium development. Curr Opin Microbiol, 8, Aug;8(4):415-421.

Vlachou D., Zimmermann T., Cantera R., Janse C.J., Waters A.P., Kafatos F. C. (2004) Real-time, in vivo analysis of malaria ookinete locomotion and mosquito midgut invasion. Cell Microbiol. Jul;6(7):671-85.

Osta M.A., Christophides G.K., Vlachou D., and Kafatos F.C. (2004) Innate immunity in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae: comparative and functional genomics. J Exp Biol. Jul 1;207:2551-63

Christophides G.K., Vlachou D., and Kafatos F.C. (2004) Comparative and functional genomics of the innate immune system in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. Immunol Rev. Apr;198:127-48

Dessens, T.J., Siden-Kiamos, I., Mendoza J., Machairaki V., Khater E., Vlachou, D., Xu X.J., Kafatos, F. C., Louis C, Dimopoulos G. and Sinden, R. E. (2003). SOAP, a novel malaria ookinete protein involved in mosquito midgut invasion and oocyst development. Mol Microbiol. 49(2):319-329.

Christophides, G. K., Zdobnov, E., Barillas-Mury, C., Birney, E., Blandin, S., Blass, C., Brey, P. T., Collins, F. H., Danielli, A., Dimopoulos, G., Vlachou, D.,… et al. (2002). Immunity-related genes and gene families in Anopheles gambiae. Science, 298, 159-165.

Vlachou, D., Lycett, G., Siden-Kiamos, I., Blass, C., Sinden, R. E., and Louis, C. (2001). Anopheles gambiae laminin interacts with the P25 surface protein of Plasmodium berghei ookinetes. Mol Biochem Parasitol 112, 229-237.

Vlachou, D., and Komitopoulou, K. (2001). The chorion genes of the medfly. II. DNA sequence evolution of the autosomal chorion genes s18, s15, s19 and s16 in Diptera. Gene 270, 41-52.

Siden-Kiamos, I., Vlachou, D., Margos, G., Beetsma, A., Waters, A. P., Sinden, R. E., and Louis, C. (2000). Distinct roles for pbs21 and pbs25 in the in vitro ookinete to oocyst transformation of Plasmodium berghei. J Cell Sci 113 Pt 19, 3419-3426.

Margos, G., Siden-Kiamos, I., Fowler, R. E., Gillman, T. R., Spaccapelo, R., Lycett, G., Vlachou, D., Papagiannakis, G., Eling, W. M., Mitchell, G. H., and Louis, C. (2000). Myosin A expressions in sporogonic stages of Plasmodium. Mol Biochem Parasitol 111, 465-469.

Vlachou, D., Konsolaki, M., Tolias, P. P., Kafatos, F. C., and Komitopoulou, K. (1997). The autosomal chorion locus of the medfly Ceratitis capitata. I. Conserved synteny, amplification and tissue specificity but sequence divergence and altered temporal regulation. Genetics 147, 1829-1842.