Li-av Segev Zarko received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She completed her postdoctoral training in John Boothroyd’s lab at Stanford University, focusing on host–parasite interactions in Toxoplasma gondii. In 2024, she joined UTMB as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a member of the Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics. Her lab uses cryo-electron tomography and molecular tools to study the invasion machinery of apicomplexan parasites.

E-mail: lisegevz@utmb.edu

Hi! My name is Lauren Gansereit and I'm the first graduate student in the Segev-Zarko Laboratory. My scientific journey has evolved from studying ecologically relevant prokaryotic organisms to working with eukaryotic organisms that cause human disease. During my bachelor's at the University of Tennessee at Martin (Dr. Michael Kempf) I researched the genetic and structural characteristics of novel bacteriophage. After graduation, I worked as a research assistant at Vanderbilt University (Dr. William Wan) using cryogenic electron microscopy and tomography to study the life cycles of mononegaviruses.  Now in the Segev-Zarko lab, I get to continue using these imaging techniques to research how Toxoplasma gondii parasites use their unique biology to invade human cells.