معرفی
Noelia Lander is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati's Department of Biological Sciences. Her research focuses on signal transduction pathways in Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite responsible for Chagas disease. She pioneered CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing methods in this organism, enabling studies of calcium and cAMP signaling pathways critical for parasite survival and pathogenesis.
Education: B.S. (Biology, Universidad Simón Bolívar, 2002), M.S. (Biological Sciences, Universidad Simón Bolívar, 2008), Ph.D. (Cellular Biology, University of Georgia, 2013). Postdoctoral training included roles at the University of Georgia and State University of Campinas. Current lab website: landerlab.uc.edu.
Research interests include environmental sensing mechanisms, parasite differentiation, and drug target validation. Key contributions include identifying roles for calcium and cAMP signaling in T. cruzi's life cycle transitions and host interactions. Recent work explores compartmentalized cAMP signals and mitochondrial Ca²⁺ regulation.
Notable grants include NIH/NIAID funding for CRISPR screening of essential genes (R21AI140421, K99/R00AI137322) and a 2020 UGA Postdoctoral Research Award. Her lab's CRISPR tools have advanced studies of kinetoplastid parasites.
Key achievements: Developed first CRISPR-based knockdown method for T. cruzi, discovered critical roles for mitochondrial calcium uniporter components, and identified CARP3 protein's role in cAMP signaling pathways.
