Department of Biology Seminar Series: Gira Bhabha

Description

The Department of Biology will host Gira Bhabha from the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine for a seminar talk titled "How Microsporidia Pathogens Deploy Harpoons to Infect Host Cells."

Bhabha is also an assistant professor of cell biology at the New York University School of Medicine.

This is a hybrid event; please attend the event by using the Zoom link

Microsporidia are tiny, single-celled parasites similar to fungi that infect a wide range of animal species, fromworms and honey bees to humans. In humans, these opportunistic pathogens can cause life-threatening infections in immunocompromised individuals. To initiate an infection, microsporidia harness a specialized harpoon-like invasion apparatus called the polar tube (PT) to gain entry into host cells. The PT is tightly coiled within the transmissible extracellular spore, and is about 20 times the length of the spore. Once triggered, the PT is rapidly ejected, within milliseconds, and is thought to penetrate the host cell, acting as a conduit for the transfer of infectious cargo into the host, to initiate infection. We combine optical microscopy, structural biology and structural cell biology to decipher the the 3-dimensional organization, dynamics, and mechanism of how this harpoon-like invasion apparatus works. Your thoughts from any perspective — host, parasite, physics, biology, mechanism, or other — are very welcome!