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Carolina Agop-Nersesian (University Heidelberg, Medical School, Heidelberg, Germany)
I am currently working as a doctoral researcher with Dr. Markus Meissner, Dept. of Parasitology, University of Heidelberg. We have successfully developed a microscopy based HT RNAi screen to analyze host-pathogen interaction of the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Michael Boutros (Functional Genomic Center, DKFZ). For our automated image analysis we use the CellProfiler program to classify the parasite phenotype for defects in invasion and replication. In the initial kinome screen we identified 27 candidates that specifically affect the survival of the pathogen but not impair host cell viability. Given that I am now close to completion of my doctoral degree, I aim to continue work on dissecting the interplay between pathogens and host cells using HT techniques. In future, I plan to design a large scale live cell screen to monitor the complex interaction of T.gondii with the host-cell cytoskeleton and its capability to hijack host-cell organelles. The image processing and the scoring of candidate hits were the most time consuming steps in the screen development. Improvement of my analytical skills for quantitative data selection is therefore,