معرفی
Cecile Fort is a Research Fellow at the electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) within Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron facility located at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. She joined eBIC in July 2024 to investigate biological systems in situ, with a current focus on virus-host interactions using FIB-milling techniques for cryo-electron microscopy sample preparation.
Her academic background includes a PhD in parasitology and bio-imaging from the Pasteur Institute in Paris (2012-2016), where she studied cilia and flagella in Trypanosoma brucei under Philippe Bastin. This was followed by postdoctoral positions at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth (2016-2019) working with Dr. Glen Wheeler on calcium signaling in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cilia, and at the University of Oxford (2019-2024) with Dr. Richard Wheeler investigating flagellar proteins in Leishmania mexicana.
Fort's research integrates advanced microscopy with molecular parasitology to decode mechanisms of pathogenicity in trypanosomatid parasites. Her expertise spans cryo-EM sample preparation, flagellar dynamics, and host-pathogen interactions, with direct applications to neglected tropical diseases including African sleeping sickness and cutaneous leishmaniasis. She contributes to eBIC's mission of providing cutting-edge structural biology infrastructure for the international research community.
As an active member of Diamond Light Source's Biological Cryo-Imaging team, Fort collaborates across disciplines to advance in situ cellular imaging methodologies while maintaining strong connections with Oxford University's parasitology research groups.
