Sebastian Lourido
The Lourido Lab studies the molecular principles of human parasitism.
455 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
Achievements & Honors
Research Areas
Affiliations
Question
How do intracellular pathogens invade and replicate inside our cells?
Approach
Intracellular parasites expose the extraordinary diversity and range of eukaryotic cell biology. Our lab seeks to understand the intimate host–parasite interactions that support infection at multiple scales, from their molecular origins to their systemic consequences. Our primary model for this work has been Toxoplasma gondii, a member of the Apicomplexa, a group of ubiquitous protist parasites that has co-evolved with animals for hundreds of millions of years. Toxoplasma and related apicomplexans are responsible for many human and veterinary diseases, including toxoplasmosis, malaria, and cryptosporidiosis.
Using genetic screens, quantitative cell biology, biochemistry, proteomics, and emerging systems-level approaches, we investigate the molecular machinery that allows these parasites to invade cells, sense and respond to their environment, regulate gene expression and metabolism, and establish persistent infections. Increasingly, our work extends to the host–parasite interactions that mediate these processes and their broader implications in disease. By uncovering both the conserved and uniquely adapted biology of these organisms, we have revealed new principles of eukaryotic biology and found new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.
Bio
As an undergraduate at Tulane University, Sebastian Lourido studied painting and print-making, at the same time as he learned about the fascinating systems and structures of the biological world. Though they initially seemed to require divergent career paths, the more science he learned, the more creativity he saw embodied in it. Eventually, he decided that being a scientist offered much of the creativity he had sought through the arts. Lourido earned his PhD in 2012 from Washington University in St. Louis in the lab of Dr. David Sibley. Subsequently, he was selected as a Whitehead Fellow and managed his own lab at the Institute until 2017 when he became a Whitehead Member and was appointed an assistant professor of biology at MIT. In 2023, he became an associate professor of biology at MIT.
