bishara marzook
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ghostpathogen.bsky.social
bishara marzook
@ghostpathogen.bsky.social
Used to be funny, now i make parasites kiss. Postdoc in the Sateriale lab @TheCrick working on Cryptosporidiosis. 2024 Leading Edge fellow.

Host-pathogen interactions, cytoskeleton, immunity, community.

Currently in London (via AUS & SL)
Pinned
Have you ever wondered how knocking out every single gene in the human genome, one by one, might affect your intracellular pathogen of interest? We did, & boy was it a wild ride! Happy to share our preprint discovering the essential host genome for Cryptosporidium -

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Who-cysts? OOCYSTS! That's right, it's almost time for ❄️Coccidia UK 2025❄️

Your one-stop shop (/conference) for all like-minded sporulating apicomplexan parasites! This year we're in London @crick.ac.uk, looking forward to welcoming parasitologists from across the UK. Register-
tinyurl.com/4ny5bwu2
CoccidiaUK 2025 registration
DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: NOVEMBER 7th Event Timing: December 8th 9am-5pm December 9th 9am-12pm Event Address: The Francis Crick Institute Questions? please email ada...
tinyurl.com
October 14, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
My background is in molecular microbiology and parasitology, with a focus on malaria drug resistance. I’ve worked across international collaborations, mentored, and published in high-impact journals. Open to research, project-management, or education-focused roles in academia, govt or industry.
July 5, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Reposted by bishara marzook
I’ve recently been made redundant from my role at UNSW due to the NIH’s decision to cancel foreign subawards. It’s an unfortunate situation affecting a lot of great researchers, and I’m now on the lookout for something new. If anyone knows of any molecular biologist roles coming up, let me know!
July 5, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Our paper has finally graduated from pre-print to peer-reviewed, pretty much unscathed, and is out now! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
The essential host genome for Cryptosporidium survival exposes metabolic dependencies that can be leveraged for treatment
An arrayed microscopy-based CRISPR screen revealed host genes affecting multiple infection phenotypes of the intracellular parasite Cryptosporidium. Hits in the host cholesterol biosynthesis pathway a...
www.cell.com
July 24, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Last chance to apply for great research tech #job in my friendly lab @uclmedsci.bsky.social in London! Cutting-edge organoid and microbiology work seeking to understand how probiotic bacteria might be deployed to fight urinary infection #UTI. Closes 23 July #UTISky www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNQ902/r...
Research Technician at UCL
Apply now for the Research Technician role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
www.jobs.ac.uk
July 21, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Reposted by bishara marzook
For those interested in Masters in lab and field based research in infectious disease we have 3 fantastic programmes to choose from MSc Immunology, medical parasitology and entomology and medical microbiology. They benefit from very flexible module choices and summer projects in UK and abroad!
July 19, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Open call: If you are a researcher working on a project estimating a cause-specific burden of disease attributable to climate change at regional to global scales, please reach out! We're looking for researchers who might be interested in joining a new collaborative network / workshop series.
July 14, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Pre-print alert 🚨: We have developed 2D and 3D stable iPSC endothelial-differentiation models through dox inducible ETS expression. We demonstrate endothelial identity and used these models for studying malaria pathogenesis research. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
July 11, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
I used inducible CRISPR/Cas9 to make Trypanosoma brucei cell line that allowed me to edit originally muti-copy histone gene. We uncovered a novel role of H4 histone tail in gene regulation. I enjoyed working on this exciting project with @joanarcf.bsky.social, a great mentor.
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Precision-edited histone tails disrupt polycistronic gene expression controls in trypanosomes - Nature Communications
Transcription in trypanosomatids, such as Trypanosoma brucei, is predominantly polycistronic and involves unconventional RNA polymerase II promoters. This study uses precision gene editing, site-satur...
www.nature.com
July 6, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Very cool work! More proof we have a lot to learn about actin and associated nucleation factors from apicomplexans :)
Finally published: discovery of an unusual Arp2/3 complex with surprising new function in transmission of #malaria #parasites. Great work by Franzi Hentzschel, Yvonne Sokolowski + David Jewanski + fantastic collaboration with Matthias Marti: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
June 15, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Woody Guthrie's guitar... hello
February 2, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Honoured to have been invited to give a hallowed GRiP-ing seminar yesterday in Glasgow! Thanks @abhinay.bsky.social for the invite and @uofgsii.bsky.social for hosting me! Now enjoying the classic Glaswegian weather 😁 (yesterday was beautiful though!)
June 14, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by bishara marzook
90% of you probably don’t need to read this.
But maybe some of you are curious & 10% will feel seen. Or a little less alone. This isn’t about seeking sympathy.
It’s about sharing something hard to say out loud;
partly to heal, partly in case someone needs to hear it too. (1/3)
tinyurl.com/DudinO
Omaya Dudin
Interview with Omaya Dudin, who uses Ichthyosporea as models to study how and why unicellular organisms evolved multicellularity at the University of Geneva.
www.cell.com
June 10, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by bishara marzook
We are developing a simple, very cheap, low tech way to reduce malaria transmission. Instead of giving the antimalarials to people, we give them to the mosquitoes that spread the parasite. How do we drug a mosquito? Read on. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Identifying antimalarials that disrupt malaria parasite transmission when fed to the mosquito
A decade-long decline in malaria cases has plateaued, primarily due to parasite drug resistance and mosquito resistance to insecticides used in bed ne…
www.sciencedirect.com
June 8, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Reposted by bishara marzook
URGENT: FlyBase has lost practically all its funding overnight; even user fees are tied up in denied grant funding. 🤬🤯

Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below.

This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.
My lab studies bacterial infections. We spend a lot of time looking at (or for) species-specific genetic and genomic databases for hosts and microbes. FlyBase is the best of all—there is literally no comparison. Its existence is under threat. Please donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Drosophila Genetic Database
The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Had a great time at this, learned so much! Thank you again for having a parasitologist amongst you. Looking forward to more host-pathogen interaction interactions 😁
The UK Cellular Microbiology meeting was an incredible success this year!

A huge thank you to all the brilliant speakers, poster presenters, and attendees who made this such a dynamic and inspiring event!

See you all next year!
June 3, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Make open access to tools and data part of your annual giving by making a tax deductible donation to @veupathdb.org. 💙This resource simplifies and supercharges global infectious disease research.

Need more reasons to support VEuPathDB? Here's a short list: veupathdb.org/veupathdb/ap...
June 2, 2025 at 5:57 PM
"Journal club" aka science hermeneutics
May 30, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Need help with bioimage analysis? Contact the UK Euro-BioImaging Node to see how we can help!

www.eurobioimaging-access.eu/nodes/uk-node
May 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Leading Edge Fellows! 40 outstanding postdoctoral fellows doing pioneering research in a wide range of biological and biomedical disciplines.

Learn more about these exceptional scientists:

www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows
May 27, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Crick researchers have shown how the bacteria causing tuberculosis can directly cross the brain’s protective barrier, causing meningitis in up to 10% of cases.
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-05...
Scientists explore how TB bacteria enter the brain
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shown how the bacteria causing tuberculosis (TB) directly cross the brain’s protective barrier, causing meningitis, a very severe form of the disease th...
www.crick.ac.uk
May 27, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by bishara marzook
🚨 Preprint Alert 🚨
We performed genetic crosses between phenotypically different Cryptosporidium strains and identified genomic loci responsible for their differences!

#Cryptosporidium #Genomics #Parasitology #InfectiousDiseases #Preprint #BioRxiv

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Genetic crosses reveal genomic loci responsible for virulence in Cryptosporidium parvum infection
The relationship between parasite genotype and pathogenesis is largely unknown for Cryptosporidium, a leading cause of diarrheal disease in children. An array of parasites with similar genomes produce...
www.biorxiv.org
May 22, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by bishara marzook
Round 2 of the BIA Travel Awards are now open. If you are a trainee based in the UK or Ireland who has had an abstract accepted for a conference, find out more and apply before the closing date on 30th June 2025 👉 www.britishinfection...
May 22, 2025 at 1:00 PM