Li-av Segev Zarko, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
E-mail: lisegevz@utmb.edu
Campus Location: MRB 6.140A; Lab: 6.142 and 6.140
Research
Li-av Segev-Zarko's research interests lie in understanding host-pathogen interactions at the molecular level, with a particular focus on membranes in the context of pathogenesis. As a graduate student in the lab of Prof. Yechiel Shai at the Weizmann Institute of Science, she investigated the involvement of host-derived antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in biofilm prevention and discovered new mechanisms by which AMPs can reduce biofilm formation and degrade existing biofilms. During her postdoc with Prof. John Boothroyd at Stanford University, Dr. Segev-Zarko shifted her focus to a eukaryotic system to study how apicomplexan parasites interact with host cell membranes during invasion. In her work, she developed workflows integrating state-of-the-art imaging techniques, including cryogenic electron tomography (cryo-ET), to study the invasion machinery of Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum. By resolving the 3D organization of the invasion machinery of Toxoplasma gondii in its native cellular context, she revealed an evolutionarily conserved feature and provided new insights into its role during the initial steps of invasion.
