CV Kai Matuschewski

 

Kai Matuschewski studied biochemistry at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen. He received his doctorate in 1998 at the Center for Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH) of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg and studied ubiquitin conjugation pathways in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae under Prof. Stefan Jentsch. Between 1998 and 2001 he worked as a postdoc in the laboratory of Prof. Victor Nussenzweig at the NYU School of Medicine, New York, where he investigated the role of the TRAP protein in Plasmodium sporozoites using experimental genetics in the mouse malaria model. From 2001 to 2007 he headed a junior group in the Parasitology Department of Prof. Michael Lanzer at the Heidelberg University Medical Center, where his work on genetically attenuated Plasmodium parasites and the functions of sporozoite genes was initiated. From 2008 he continued as Professor of Applied Parasitology and in 2009 moved to the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin. Since 2015 he has been Professor of Molecular Parasitology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. His group is interested in molecular and cell biological mechanisms of stage conversion in Plasmodium parasites, malaria vaccine development, mechanisms of protective immune responses against pre-erythrocytic stages and the evolution of malaria parasites.

Selected Publications:

  1. Matz J, Drepper B, Blum T.B, van Genderen E, Burrell A, Martin P, Stach T, Collinson L, Abrahams JP, Matuschewski K, Blackman MJ (2020) A lipocalin mediates unidirectional haem biomineralization in malaria parasites. Proc Nat Acad Sci U S A 117:16546-16556. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2001153117
  2. Kenthirapalan S, Waters AP, Matuschewski K, Kooij TWA (2016) Functional profiles of orphan membrane transporters in the life cycle of the malaria parasite. Nat Commun 7:10519. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10519
  3. Schaer J, Perkins SL, Decher J, Leendertz F, Fahr J, Weber N, Matuschewski K (2013) High diversity of West African bat malaria parasites and a tight link with rodent Plasmodium taxa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110: 17415-17419. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1311016110
  4. Hafalla JCR, Bauza K, Friesen J, Gonzalez-Aseguinolaza G, Hill AVS, Matuschewski K (2013) Identification of targets of CD8+ T cell responses to malaria liver stages by genome-wide epitope profiling. PLoS Pathog 9: e1003303. DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003303
  5. Friesen J, Silvie O, Putrianti ED, Hafalla JCR, Matuschewski K, Borrmann S (2010) Natural immunization against malaria: causal prophylaxis with antibiotics. Sci Transl Med 2:ra49. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3001058
  6. Silvie O, Goetz K, Matuschewski K (2008) A sporozoite asparagine-rich protein controls initiation of Plasmodium liver stage development. PLoS Pathog 4: e1000086. DOI: 0.1371/journal.ppat.1000086
  7. Aly ASI, Matuschewski K (2005) A malarial cysteine protease is necessary for Plasmodium sporozoite egress from oocysts. J Exp Med 202:225-230. DOI: 10.1084/jem.20050545
  8. Mueller AK, Labaied M, Kappe SHI, Matuschewski K (2005) Genetically modified Plasmodium parasites as a protective experimental malaria vaccine. Nature 433:164-167. DOI: 10.1038/nature03188
  9. Matuschewski K, Ross J, Brown S, Kaiser K, Nussenzweig V, Kappe SHI (2002) Infectivity-associated changes in the transcriptional repertoire of the malaria parasite sporozoite stage. J Biol Chem 277:41948-41953. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M207315200
  10. Matuschewski K, Nunes AC, Nussenzweig V, Ménard R (2002) Plasmodium sporozoite invasion of insect and mammalian cells is directed by the same dual binding system. EMBO J 21:1597-1606. DOI: 10.1093/emboj/21.7.1597