Dr. Markus Meissner Department of Parasitology University Heidelberg 69120 Heidelberg, Germany Phone: +49-(0)6221-56 6518 Fax: +49-(0)6221-56 4643 Email: [email protected] 24/05/1973 in Landshut, Germany SCIENTIFIC VITA 2005 - current Group leader at Dept. Parasitology, University of Heidelberg 2002 – 2004 Postdoctoral fellow at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London (U.K.) and Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne (Australia) 2002 Participation at the course "Biology of Parasitism" at the Marine Biological Laboratories (MBL) in Woods Hole 1999 – 2002 Ph.D thesis at at Center of Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH)" 1997 – 1998 Diploma thesis at the University of Regensburg 1996 – 1997 DAAD-Fellowship for an Exchange program at the Washington University in St. Louis (USA) 1993 – 1998 Study of Biology at University of Regensburg FIELDS OF INTEREST Molecular Parasitology Identification and characterisation of essential genes in Toxoplasma gondii, Gene regulation in apicomplexan parasites, Host-Parasite Interactions CURRENTLY FUNDED PROJECTS BMBF-funded group fellowship (BioFuture); SFB544, project B16 (DFG) Schwerpunktprogramm 1131, “Intracellular lifeforms” (DFG) In addition the group is affiliated member of BioMalPar, European network of excellence 1 AWARDS 2004 Winner of BioFuture of the German Ministry of Science and Education (BMBF) 2002 Feodor-Lynen-Fellowship of the German Humboldt Society 1997 DAAD-Fellowship for Student exchange program PUBLICATIONS Markus Meissner, Efrosinia Krejany, Brendan Crabb and Dominique Soldati (2005). Tetracycline analogue-regulated transgene expression in Plasmodium falciparum blood- stages using artificial transactivators isolated in Toxoplasma gondii. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 102(8): p. 2980-5. Jeffrey Mital, Markus Meissner, Dominique Soldati and Gary Ward (2005).Conditional expression of Toxoplasma gondii Apical Membrane Antigen-1 (TgAMA1) demonstrates that TgAMA1 plays a critical role in host cell invasion. Mol.Biol.Cell, 16(9):p.4341-49 Markus Meissner und Dominique Soldati (2005). "The transcription machinery and the molecular toolbox to control gene expression in Toxoplasma gondii and other protozoan parasites." Microbes Infect 7(13): 1376-84. Markus Meissner and Dominique Soldati (2004). Gliding motility in Apicomplexan parasites. Current opinion in cell biology, 16:32-40 Markus Meissner, Matthias Reiss, Nicola Viebig, Vern Carruthers, Catherine Trousel, Stanislas Tomavo, James W. Ajioka and Dominique Soldati (2002). A family of transmembrane microneme proteins of Toxoplasma gondii contain EGF-like domains and function as escorters. Journal of Cell Science 115(Pt 3):563-74. Markus Meissner, Dirk Schlüter and Dominique Soldati (2002). Toxoplasma gondii myosin A: a virulence factor powering parasite gliding and host cells invasion. Science 298(5594):837-40. Julio Saez-Vasquez, Markus Meissner and Craig S. Pikaard (2001). RNA polymerase I holoenzyme-promoter complexes include an associated CK2-like protein kinase. Plant Molecular Biology 47, 449-459. Markus Meissner, Susan Brecht, Hermann Bujard and Dominique Soldati (2001). Modulation of myosin A expression by a newly established tetracycline repressor-based inducible system in Toxoplasma gondii. Nucleic Acid Research 29 Markus Meissner, Klaus Stark, Bronja Cresnar, David L. Kirk and Rüdiger Schmitt (1999)). Volvox germline-specific genes that are putativee targets of RegA repression encode chloroplast proteins. Current Genetics 36, 363-370. EXPERIENCE IN THE SUPERVISION OF DOCTORAL CANDIDATES Currently supervising 3 doctoral students and 2 Diploma students 2 PRESENTATIONS Molecular Parasitology Meeting XI, Woods Hole 2000. "The development of a Teracycline controled gene expression system in the Apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii." Poster Award. International Congress on Toxoplasmosis, Freising 2001. "Modulation of myosin A expression by a newly established tetracycline inducible system in Toxoplasma gondii." Talk Molecular Parasitology Meeting XIV, Woods Hole 2003. "Establishment of a tetracycline dependent inducible system for Plasmodium falciparum, based on artificial transactivators generated in Toxoplasma gondii." Speaker Award. Annual Meeting of American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Philadelphia 2003. "Establishment of a tetracycline dependent inducible system for Plasmodium falciparum, based on artificial transactivators generated in Toxoplasma gondii." Invited Speaker Meeting of the DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm “Intracellular lifeforms”, Marburg 2005 “Update on Tetracycline-regulateable systems in Apicomplexa” Invited Speaker COST 857 Action "Apicomplexan parasites in the post-genomic era", Beatenburg, Switzerland 2005 Invited Speaker Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Protozoology, Caxambu 2005. “Switch it on, Switch it off: Ectopic gene regulation systems and their employment in apicomplexan parasites” Invited Speaker Second Annual BioMalPar Conference on “The Biology and Pathology of the Malaria Parasite”, Heidelberg 2006. “Identification and characterisation of essential genes in Toxoplasma gondii” Plenary Speaker Bernhard-Nocht-Institute, Hamburg, Germany 2006 „Forward genetic screens in Toxoplasma gondii: Fishing for the essentials for an obligate intracellular parasite” Invited Talk 3.