Matthew Bowler
Principal Investigator
Matthew Bowler is a Staff scientist at EMBL Grenoble. His primary research topic is Biological and biomedical imaging and Protein structure in health and pathology.
Project in fourth call (together with Kristina Djinovic Carugo):
Cross-scale imaging of the invasion and progression of Toxoplasma gondii in human cells
Principal Investigator
Matthew Bowler is a Staff scientist at EMBL Grenoble. His primary research topic is Biological and biomedical imaging and Protein structure in health and pathology.
Project in fourth call (together with Kristina Djinovic Carugo):
Cross-scale imaging of the invasion and progression of Toxoplasma gondii in human cells
Principal Investigator
Matthew Bowler is a Staff scientist at EMBL Grenoble. His primary research topic is Biological and biomedical imaging and Protein structure in health and pathology.
Project in fourth call (together with Kristina Djinovic Carugo):
Cross-scale imaging of the invasion and progression of Toxoplasma gondii in human cells
Short Biography
Coming soon
AMBER postdoctoral fellowship subject (fourth call)
Cross-scale imaging of the invasion and progression of Toxoplasma gondii in human cells
Toxoplasma belongs to the phylum Apicomplexa, which includes numerous important human and animal pathogens such as Plasmodium species, Cryptosporidium, and Neospora caninum. The protozoan parasite T. gondii is the etiologic agent of toxoplasmosis, a usually mild disease in immunocompetent humans that can turn into a major threat to the unborn and to immunocompromised people, with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or under chemo- and graft rejection therapies. Toxoplasma is an obligate parasite that develops and proliferates inside a surrogate host cell.
We propose to perform a mesoscale exploration of the invasion and persistence of T. gondii in its host cell. This will be performed for the first time on the same sample using a support that we are developing that is compatible with light, X-ray and electron imaging. We aim to routinely collect X-ray tomographic data on whole infected human cells in order to target regions of interest (e.g interface between parasite and host cell organelles) for FIB milling and cryoET data collection. Phase contrast tomography of these samples is already providing unprecedented insight into the infection process, correlation with high resolution tomography on targeted regions will be a sea change in Toxoplasma research and will potentially allow molecular details of infection to be determined via sub-tomogram averaging of complexes in regions previously identified by phase contrast imaging. This project poses unique challenges in correlating 3D volumes at different scales and resolutions. In collaboration with the Hakimi lab (IAB, Grenoble), beamline ID16A at the ESRF and the EMBL imaging centre in Heidelberg, we are developing the tools required for this project and are starting to generate the first data sets. This is an opportunity to drive innovative developments in data processing in correlative imaging applied to an important infectious agent.
Location: EMBL, Grenoble, France
Organisation: EMBL, Grenoble
Links
AMBER call in EURAXESS main call (starting point for application)
Matthew Bowler's profile in EMBL's Research portal