Malaria researcher Christiaan van Ooij investigates how the malaria parasite builds a home in human red blood cells​

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Talking to Christiaan van Ooij always brightens your day. He possesses immense knowledge of science and is always happy to share it. We met a couple of years ago at a conference in Woods Hole (US) and have stayed in touch ever since.

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Born in the US to Dutch parents, Christiaan could not have guessed that his path would eventually lead him to become a scientist. Today, he is a Lecturer in Molecular Parasitology at Keele University’s School of Life Sciences, where he studies malaria parasites. He is particularly interested in how these parasites modify the human host cells they invade. Malaria parasites can infect and multiply within human red blood cells, a process closely associated with the intense fever cycles experienced by malaria patients.

Of particular importance are the first few minutes after the malaria parasite enters its new home. This is what Christiaan focuses on because these brief moments form the foundation for how the parasite adapts to a foreign environment and causes a disease that has plagued humankind for millennia.

 

I was excited to sit down with Christiaan to hear about his personal and professional journey, tap into his incredible musical mind, and find out how life is going in his hometowns of Keele and London.

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Can you please tell us about yourself and your roots?

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I was born in Ames, Iowa, in the US, when my Dutch parents lived there during my dad’s post-doc at Iowa State (he was an inorganic chemist). My parents returned to the Netherlands within year after I was born and I grew up in the eastern part of the country. When I was a teenager, my family moved back to the US – to Golden, Colorado (the home of Coors beer). Going from a somewhat rural and very flat area in The Netherlands to an old frontier town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains was quite a culture shock; the mountains were daunting and the first day there I saw a horse parked outside of a saloon! Despite that, I managed to settle there, in no small part owing to the friendliness of the people in Colorado.

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Were you always interested in science or did you have another career path in mind?​

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 As a little kid I wanted to become a Formula 1 race car driver (things have changed: I really dislike driving now, although I still follow Formula 1) and then for a long time an archeologist. I did well in school, including the science courses, but did not really think about becoming a scientist, despite subtle and unsubtle encouragement from my dad to go in a science direction. In high school, I just wanted to do well and go to college but had no firm idea what to study.

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How did your university/educational path look like?

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Not having a clear idea what to do, I took the middle route of my interest in biology and my dad’s example of being a chemist and studied biochemistry, at Colorado State University. I liked that, but when I started working in a lab studying gene expression, I found that more interesting and gradually drifted to the ‘bio’ side of biochemistry. It was more or less expected that I would get a higher degree and I was fortunate to be admitted to the Biomedical Science Program at UCSF. And this was where my interest in molecular biology and cell biology really developed. The enthusiasm of the people at UCSF for their work and for the biology was incredibly infective. And when I rotated through Joanne Engel’s lab in my first year at UCSF, I found a very supportive environment that made me feel at home. Seeing myself develop as a scientist, sometimes on a monthly basis, was incredibly motivating, as was slowly becoming an expert in my field of study (the interaction of Chlamydia trachomatis with the host cell), as long as you defined that field very, very narrowly!

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Who was/is your biggest supporter?

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My parents, although they are not around anymore. They created an environment where academic success was appreciated, encouraged and recognized, without forgetting that kids like other things, too, like soccer and hanging out with friends. I am sad that they don’t get to see that their efforts have given me my scientific a career. 

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After your postdoc, you became an editor for Nature Reviews Microbiology. What about scientific publishing intrigued you?

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It was the breadth of microbiology that was covered. By the time I started at Nature Reviews Microbiology, I had investigated a Gram-negative bacterium (Chlamydia trachomatis), a Gram-positive bacterium (Bacillus subtilis) and eukaryotic protozoan (Plasmodium falciparum) and had a broad interest in microbiology. It was an opportunity to learn more about things I was interested in and things I had knew very little about (it turns out the Archaea are fascinating!). Going to conferences without a specific itinerary other than seeing the most interesting talks was a delight.

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When and why did you return to the laboratory and to research?

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Ultimately, I missed working in the lab a lot, especially those moments where you are the first to see something and the ownership you have over a project with that little niche that is uniquely yours (again, defining the niche very, very narrowly!). Working on articles written by others, even if the idea for it was mine, didn’t provide nearly the sense of satisfaction. After I became Chief Editor, there were no more further career steps that would keep me close to the biology; every promotion would take me in a more managerial direction, which I was not interested in. The job itself changed very little, so I was I worried that I would be doing the same things for decades. When a friend sent a link to a fellowship for people who want to return to science after taking a career break, I realized that perhaps there was an opportunity for me to do that – there was a lot of unfinished business from my post-doc that I wanted to return to. And with a Wellcome Trust Career Re-Entry Fellowship, I managed to return to bench science.

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You are currently Lecturer in Molecular Parasitology at Keele University. Can you tell us about the research foci of your laboratory?​

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In the lab we study the interaction of malaria parasites with the host erythrocyte, in particular the ways the parasites rebuild the host cell. Recently we have also started to focus on the large changes in shape and size that the parasite undergoes very soon it has invaded the erythrocyte. It has been known for some time that the parasite takes on an amoeboid shape, but there has been very little investigation of the mechanism or the timing and the mechanism underlying this change or the purpose of the change (we think it is important for the passage of the infected erythrocyte through the circulation and the spleen). Finally, we are interested in the function of a specific organelle, the dense granule, that is one of three organelles unique to the Apicomplexa, the phylum to which Plasmodium belongs, and that is secreted soon after invasion. In contrast to the other two apicomplexan organelles, the function of the dense granules in Plasmodium parasites is unclear and very little is known about them, although they are undoubtedly essential and are likely to play an important part in the successful establishment of the parasite in the host cell. Overall, we want to understand what happens to the parasite and the host cell in the first half hour after invasion. 

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What do you consider the most important finding of your career so far?

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My contribution to the identification of the protein signal that allows proteins to be exported from malaria parasites to the host erythrocyte. This allowed hundreds of exported proteins to be identified and showed that the parasite remodels the host cell much more than previously thought.

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Do you have any advice for people who want to pursue a career in science?

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Do it because you love doing science, either because you love the process or the subject you are studying. If you don’t, the number of setbacks you will encounter will make for a miserable existence. And if you go for it, go for it whole hog (and attend every seminar, no matter how unrelated – you will always learn something).

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Who, what, when, where & why?

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Who?

- would you like to conduct research with if you had the chance?

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. The discovery of an entire new world of organisms must have been one of the greatest thrills in the history of biology.

 

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What?

- do you like to do in your free time?

Run and read books.

 

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When?

- do you find inspiration for your research?

Through reading papers, discussing science with colleagues and attending seminars.

 

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Where?

- is your favorite travel destination?

Chicago – one of the greatest and friendliest cities in the world.

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Why?

- did you choose your specific research topic(s)?

Plasmodium chose me, as it were, as there was a post-doc position available in a malaria lab. The aspects of the parasite-host interaction that we study now seem to me big, unanswered questions in the field. Getting answers into those questions will teach us a lot about how the parasite survives inside the host and causes disease.​​

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How?

- do you deal with setbacks?

“The only way out is through”

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…or?

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Attend a party or be the host?

Host.

 

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Museum or movie theatre?

Museum.

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Sneakers or dress shoes?

Dress shoes.

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Optimist or pessimist?

Optimist.

 

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Ambition or comfort?

Ambition.

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See the future or change the past?

See the future.

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​​The interview was conducted by Nicole Kilian and has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Image sources: Christiaan van Ooij.

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