Christiaan van Ooij

Biography

Christiaan obtained a BS in Biochemistry from Colorado State University and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco. He then worked as a post-doctoral fellow in Boston and Chicago. It was during his post-doc in Chicago that he started investigating malaria parasites, which he has studied ever since. His next research position was as a Wellcome Career Re-Entry Fellow at the National Institute for Biomedical Research and the Francis Crick Institute in London and next moved to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine after he obtained an MRC Career Development award. He joined the School of Life Sciences in September 2024 to continue the research on the parasite-host interaction.

His main research interests are the ways in which malaria parasite have adapted to life in the host’s erythrocyte and how the parasite alters the host erythrocytes for its own need. In particular, the work in his lab focuses on the formation of new organelles in the host cell and the way that the parasite changes shape to avoid clearance in the spleen. He applies a wide range of imaging techniques, including 3D electron microscopy and ultrastructure expansion microscopy, and genetic techniques for the genetic manipulation of the parasites.

The long-term goal is to understand the changes that occur in the parasite after it has invaded the host cell on a molecular and cellular level and exploit this to develop new anti-malarials.

Collaborations and grants awards

Wellcome Trust Career Re-Entry Award

MRC Career Development Award