Anita Koshy, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Immunobiology at the University of Arizona. Clinically, Dr. Koshy specializes in infections of the central nervous system (CNS). The Koshy lab focuses on using in vivo and in vitro models to understand how interactions between Toxoplasma gondii and cells of the CNS—especially neurons—enable Toxoplasma’s long-term persistence in the CNS and overall survival of the host.

Aoife Heaslip received her bachelor’s degree from University College Dublin and PhD degree from the University of Vermont under the mentorship of Dr. Gary Ward. Aoife then moved to Indiana University and worked as a postdoctoral associate with Dr. Ke Hu. She then returned to Vermont to complete a second postdoc with Dr. David Warshaw, an expert in myosin biophysics. In 2017, Aoife started her own research group at the University of Connecticut. The focus of her lab is understanding cargo transport and actin organization in Toxoplasma gondii.

Cyrille Botté is a CNRS Research Director who leads the CNRS-INSERM-Université Grenoble Alpes "Apicolipid" research team at the Institut for Advanced Biosciences in Grenoble (Twitter: @ApicoLipid). His team focuses on understanding how Apicomplexan parasites (intracellular human pathogens responsible for major human diseases including malaria and toxoplasmosis) acquire lipids and nutrient essential for their propagation, survival, and pathogenesis within their human host. His team developed a strong expertise in parasite lipid analysis, lipidomic and fluxomic analysis, and set up major facilities and equipment in their premises, such as a P3* cell culture facility (HCB #3573), and a fully independent lipidomic-fluxomic platform (both part of a larger core facilities (http://gemeli- uga.fr/GEMELI.html). They have thus extended a larger metabolomic-lipidomic platform dedicated to health, which activity spans to infections, cancer, metabolic signature, cohorts… Current interests of the team are focusing hot-parasite metabolic interaction, lipid trafficking, and sensing/adaptation of pathogens to host nutritional environment.

Dr. Dominique Soldati-Favre is a full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva and serves as the head of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine. She studied biochemistry and obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Zurich. Following a postdoctoral training at Stanford University, she held the position as group leader in Heidelberg and as Reader at Imperial College London. Dr. Soldati-Favre is an EMBO member and has been honored with the Alice and CC Wang Award in Molecular Parasitology for her research focused on the biology of apicomplexan parasites. Her team is deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying gliding motility and host cell invasion. More recently, they have initiated studies on the metabolic needs and capabilities of the Apicomplexa

Honglin JIA is Professor of Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). He graduated from the National Research Center for Protozoan Diseases, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary medicine, Japan. After a postdoctoral fellowship of JSPS in Hokkaido University International Institute for Zoonosis Control, Japan, he become a Principle investigator in Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, CAAS until now. The research in his lab focus on the T. gondii biology, especially on the biogenesis of the unique organelles and signal regulation in stage conversion of T. gondii.

Ira Blader is a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. In 1999, he obtained his Ph.D. in neuroscience/cell biology from the University at Alabama at Birmingham and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University where he started his work on Toxoplasma gondii pathogenesis. In 2003, he established his laboratory at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and in 2013 moved to the University at Buffalo. His laboratory’s research interests include determining how Toxoplasma senses oxygen, the function of the SCF-E3 ubiquitin ligase complex in parasite growth, and defining how the parasite impacts the structure and function of the central nervous system.

Dr. Boyle got his Ph.D. in 2003 with Dr. Timothy Yoshino at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he studied interactions between larval stages of the human parasite Schisosoma mansoni and it’s snail host. He then performed his Postdoctoral work with Dr. John Boothroyd at Stanford University where he studied Toxoplasma population biology and virulence evolution. He joined the department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh in 2008 where he is currently a full professor. He has continued to study T. gondii/host interactions but his work has expanded to multiple parasite species including Hammondia hammondi and Neospora caninum, and through a long-standing collaboration with Carolyn Coyne (Duke University) he also studies interactions between Toxoplasma and the human placenta.

Karen Shapiro obtained a DVM from UC Davis in 2002. She practiced small animal medicine for two years before returning to UCD to pursue a PhD investigating the waterborne transmission of Toxoplasma gondii. She obtained her PhD in 2009, and a Masters of Preventative Veterinary Medicine in 2011. Dr. Shapiro continued her research on the ecology of zoonotic pathogens in coastal ecosystems from 2010-2012 as an Oceans and Human Health postdoctoral fellow at the UCD One Health Institute. In 2012 She joined the faculty of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology (UCD) where she is currently appointed as an Associate Professor. Her research program targets the epidemiology and ecology of apicomplexan parasites, transmission of zoonotic pathogens in watersheds and coastal ecosystems, and the effects of landscape and climate change on disease transmission.

Klemens is a Research Assistant Professor associated with the Gubbels Lab at Boston College. He received his PhD from the University of Hamburg, where he worked on P. falciparum red blood cell invasion. For his post-doc, he joined the lab of Marc-Jan Gubbels, focusing on T. gondii cell division. His current research interests revolve around the unique apicomplexan cytoskeleton.

Laura Knoll is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Associate Dean for Basic Research Training. She graduated from St. Olaf College with a BA in Chemistry and Biology, and Washington University in St. Louis with her thesis research in Dr. Jeffrey Gordon lab. She did her postdoctoral research with Dr. John Boothroyd at Stanford University where she used molecular genetic techniques to study the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. In 2001, she moved to UW-Madison where her lab has focused on Toxoplasma asexual and sexual development.

Dr. Laura Vanagas received her Ph.D. from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina). After a short postdoc stay at the INTA (National Institute for Agro Technology) in Tandil, Buenos Aires, She joined Dr Sergio Angel´s group in INTECH (Technological Institute of Chascomús), at the Molecular Parasitology Lab. In this Lab she was able to direct her career towards molecular biology of Toxoplasma gondii, especially in epigenetics, and become a researcher for CONICET in 2013 as well as Assistant Teacher in the same Institute, for the National University of San Martín. Over the course of these years, she have acquired a solid foundation in the molecular biology of parasites, along with experience in leading a group and supervising students of different levels. Her interest in toxoplasmosis includes the epigenetic mechanism in the regulation of gene expression, the DNA damage repair mechanism and its association with DNA replication stress, as well as the role of genes and transcripts of the subtelomeric region, in all cases in Toxoplasma.

Dr. Leonardo Augusto, driven by a passion for Microbiology and Immunology, earned his PhD at the Federal University of Sao Paulo in 2014. His post-doctoral expedition included focused training in cell biology and parasitology at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (2014-2016) and further research at the Indiana University School of Medicine (2016-2020). This diverse training laid the foundation for Dr. Augusto's career. He made significant contributions to understanding host-pathogen interactions, becoming an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2020. The lab program aims to uncover how intracellular pathogens impact host metabolism, particularly in prolonged brain infections. The lab program aims to uncover how intracellular pathogens impact host metabolism, especially in prolonged brain infections. It focuses on identifying crucial cellular processes that facilitate the persistence of these infections, currently examining the interaction with Toxoplasma gondii in brain cells.

Prof. Lilach Sheiner the deputy head for Parasitology theme at the School of Infection and Immunity at University of Glasgow. She is leading a team focused on mitochondrial biology of apicomplexan, and on divergent cell biology of eukaryotes. Throughout her career she has been researching divergent cell biology using Toxoplasma as an apicomplexan model. Her PhD at the university of Geneva Switzerland was focused on intracellular trafficking of Toxoplasma membrane proteins, and her postdoc at the Center of Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, GA, USA, was focused on apicoplast protein import. In the past 10 years Lilach and her team have developed protocols for the study of mitochondrial biology in Toxoplasma which they have been using to study its unique biology and biogenesis.

Dr. Manlio Di Cristina obtained the Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Science in 1990 at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" and he was then awarded PhD in molecular and cellular parasitology in 2001 at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (London, UK). Currently, he holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Biology, and Biotechnology at the University of Perugia, Italy. Molecular Parasitology has been the main focus of his scientific activity for the last 30 years, many of them focusing on the study of the mechanisms underlying persistence and dormancy of Toxoplasma gondii. Over the last twenty years, he gained a strong expertise in the in vitro and in vivo manipulation of type II strains, successfully generating hundreds of transgenic lines, recently using also CRISPR/Cas9 methodology, and developing protocols for in vitro bradyzoite differentiation. He has also developed in vitro and in vivo assays for determining bradyzoite viability, purification of cysts from mouse brains to test permeability of the cyst wall to cystocidal compounds, and in vivo analysis of bradyzoite morphology. These methods will be fundamental to investigate mechanisms undelaying cyst formation and persistence. Furthermore, from July 2011, He has been collaborating with Prof. Vern B. Carruthers of University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA) and recently with the appointment of “U-M Adjunct Research Investigator”, to develop several aspects of Toxoplasma cyst biology. Recent work from his lab, in collaboration with the Carruthers group, has uncovered the importance of the T. gondii Cathepsin L (CPL) in the viability of cysts.

Maria E. Francia is a Pasteur Network group leader at the Institut Pasteur de Montevideo in Uruguay. There, she leads the Laboratory of Apicomplexan Biology. Her group focuses on understanding the molecular players involved in governing cell division mechanisms, the mechanisms of life stage differentiation and of vertical transmission of Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum. Her group is also interested in pursuing translational endeavors focusing on animal health and prevention of reproductive loss.

Dr. Maritza Jaramillo is an Associate Professor working in the area of host-parasite interactions at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) - Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie (Quebec, Canada). Her research program focuses on investigating the transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms involved in the dysregulation of host gene expression during two protozoan parasitic infections of clinical relevance; namely, toxoplasmosis and leishmaniasis. Dr. Jaramillo’s long-term goal is to advance health-related knowledge on the molecular basis of the pathogenesis of toxoplasmosis and leishmaniasis and to uncover novel targets and regulators of host mRNA metabolism with potential antiparasitic applications.

Mathieu Gissot has been exploring through molecular approaches the mechanisms controlling the regulation of gene expression in apicomplexan parasites. During his PhD, he explored how transcription factors played a role in regulation the erythrocytic cycle of P. falciparum. As a post-doc in Kami Kim’s lab, he worked on gene regulation in both Plasmodium and T. gondii. He is currently a research director at CNRS working at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, and his research focuses on deciphering the molecular pathways controlling proliferation and differentiation of the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. He has a broad background in molecular biology and genetics, with specific training and expertise in molecular parasitology. As a PI, he explored many aspects of gene regulation by deciphering the molecular mechanisms regulating the T. gondii cell cycle. In particular, he directed the work that led to the discovery of a master regulator of gene expression during a critical step of the cell cycle of this parasite.

Moritz is a senior group leader at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science and the Francis Crick Institute. The focus of the lab lies on the cell biology of host-pathogen interaction in Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii.

Nishith Gupta graduated with an MSc degree in Biotechnology from Banaras Hindu University, India (1999) and completed his PhD in Biochemistry as a German Research Foundation (DFG) fellow from University of Leipzig, Germany (2003). He worked as a National Health Institute (NIH) Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver (USA). He then joined Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany seeding an independent research group. Nishith is blessed with several international recognitions e.g., Carl-Asmund Rudolphi Medal by the German Society of Parasitology, Young Scientist Award in Microbiology by Robert Koch Foundation, Heisenberg Program Fellow by DFG, Dr. Habilitation & Venia legend by Humboldt University, Berlin, Chair Professor by Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan (China), OPERA Award by Birla institute of Technology and Science (BITS, India), International Adjunct Faculty at China Agricultural University, Beijing (China), Wellcome Trust-DBT Senior Fellow by India Alliance, International Senior Biomedical Scientist Fellowship by ICMR-DHR (India) and Visiting Scientist by SickKids, Toronto (Canada). He is currently working at BITS, Hyderabad Campus (India), as Professor and Head of the Department of Biological Sciences. His research team works on deciphering the network design principles and molecular determinants of intracellular parasitism by parasitic protists of clinical and veterinary relevance such as, Toxoplasma, Plasmodium and Eimeria. Among many notable achievements focusing on pathogen-host interactions, metabolism and signaling, he has pioneered the application of optogenetics in infection research and founded Intracellular Parasite Education And Research Labs (iPEARL) and Veterinary And Medical Parasite Infection Research Ensemble (VAMPIRE: One-Health Initiative) at BITS, Hyderabad (India). He is extremely driven to promote early-career scholars with a passion for research and education.

Dr. Guiton is a molecular parasitologist studying host-parasite interactions. She obtained her Ph.D. from Washington University and completed a postdoc at Stanford University. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Santa Clara University. She is passionate about science education and advocates for more opportunities for students from minoritized and underprivileged communities to join the STEM workforce. Dr. Guiton co-founded PEERs in Parasitology (PiP) to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of parasitology.

Rima McLeod, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FAAAS is Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Pediatrics (Infectious Diseases), Committees on Molecular Medicine and Immunology, & The College, Member and Steering Committee Center for Global Health, Center for Health & the Social Sciences, Director, Toxoplasmosis Center, Senior Fellow, Institute of Genomics, Genetics and Systems Biology, and Attending Physician Chicago Medicine Member at The University of Chicago, Chicago IL 60637. Her early training was at The University of California in Berkeley and in San Francisco, The University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University and she has been a faculty member at The University of Chicago since 1979. She and her colleagues work to understand human toxoplasmosis, including host pathogen interaction, molecular pathogenesis, host response, and to develop means to prevent and definitively cure toxoplasmosis and its consequences based in an understanding of biology of the parasite and its human host.

Dr. Andrade is a physician-scientist at UC Irvine. She earned her medical degree at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, completed her Infectious Diseases fellowship at University of California San Diego. Her initial studies with auranofin, a reprofiled drug that contains gold, led her to further explore the role of superoxide dismutase in the mitochondrion of T. gondii. She is interested in understanding how Toxoplasma gondii maintains its redox homeostasis to successfully evade the host immune response and survive.

Bill Sullivan is the Showalter Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology and Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM), Indianapolis, IN, USA. He received his Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania working with Dr. David Roos. After a postdoc at Eli Lilly & Co, he became an Assistant Research Professor at IUSM, where he has been studying the regulation of gene expression in Toxoplasma gondii.

Dr. Yifan Wang received his D.V.M. (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) degree from Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China, and then obtained a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Parasitology at Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China. In November 2015, Dr. Wang started his postdoctoral training with Dr. Jeroen Saeij at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Wang began his independent career as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School in January 2023. The Wang Lab's long-term research goal is to understand the molecular basis of Toxoplasma pathogenesis and host defense.