Natalia Luisa Hiller, Ph.D.

Research Interests

• Molecular Pathogenesis
• Bioinformatics

Current Project

• Study the interactions between microorganisms and their hosts using comparative genomics.

Honor & Awards

• Predoctoral Fellowship, American Heart Association, Chicago, IL
• Predoctoral Fellowship (top 2.8%), American Heart Association, Chicago, IL
• Northwestern University Scholar Award, Chicago, IL
• Northwestern University Scholar Award, Chicago, IL
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Gordon Conference, Il Ciocceo, Italy
• Travel Award, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
• Award for Best Student Poster, Northwestern Pathology Retreat, Chicago, IL
• Center for Genetic Medicine Travel Award, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
• ASTMH Award for Scientific Excellence, Molecular Parasitology Mtg., Woods Hole, MA

Professional Memberships

• American Society for Microbiology
• American Association for the Advancement of Science

Publications

Lauer S, VanWye J, Harrison T, McManus H, Samuel BU, Hiller NL, Mohandas N, Haldar K. Vacuolar uptake of host components, and a role for cholesterol and sphingomyelin in malarial infection. EMBO J 19;14:3556-3564, 2000.

Haldar K, Samuel BU, Mohandas N, Harrison T, Hiller NL. Erythrocytic vacuolar rafts induced by malaria parasites. Curr Opin Hematol 8;2:92-97, 2001.

Haldar K, Samuel BU, Mohandas N, Harrison T, Hiller NL. Transport mechanisms in plasmodium-infected erythrocytes: Lipid rafts and a tubovesicular network. Int J Parasitol 31;12:1393-1401, 2001.

Haldar K, Mohandas N, Samuel BU, Harrison T, Hiller NL, Akompong T, Cheresh P. Protein and lipid trafficking induced in erythrocytes infected by malaria parasites. Cell Microbiol 4;7:383-395, 2002.

Hiller NL, Akompong T, Morrow JS, Holder AA, Haldar K. Identification of a stomatin orthologue in vacuoles induced in human erythrocytes by malaria parasites: A role for microbial raft-proteins in apicomplexan vacuole biogenesis. J Biol Chem 278;48:48413-48421, 2003.

Hiller NL, Bhattacharjee S, van Ooij C, Liolios K, Harrison T, Lopez-Estrano C, Haldar K. A host-targeting signal in virulence proteins reveals a secretome in malarial infection. Science 306;5703:1934-1937, 2004. This article was highlighted in Nature Reviews Microbiology 3, 97-98, 2005.

Haldar K, Hiller NL, van Ooij C, Bhattacharjee S. Plasmodium parasite proteins and the infected erythrocyte. Trends Parasitol 21;9:402-403, 2005.

Murphy SC, Hiller NL, Harrison T, Lomasney JW, Mohandas N, Haldar K. Lipid rafts and malaria parasite infection of erythrocytes. Mol Membr Biol 23;1:81-88, 2006.

Bhattacharjee S*, Hiller NL*, Liolios K, Win J, Kanneganti TD, Young C, Kamoun S, Haldar K. The malarial host-targeting signal is conserved in the Irish potato famine pathogen. PLOS Pathogens 2;5:e50, 2006. * Equally contributing authors. This article was selected for Editor's Choice in Science 312; 5780: 1574, 2006.

Haldar K, Kamoun S, Hiller NL, Bhattacharje S, van Ooij C. Common infection strategies of pathogenic eukaryotes. Nat Rev Microbiol 4;12:922-931, 2006.

Buchinsky FJ, Forbes ML, Hayes JD, Shen K, Ezzo S, Compliment J, Hogg J, Hiller NL, Hu FZ, Post JC, Ehrlich GD. Virulence phenotypes of low-passage clinical isolates of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae assessed using the chinchilla laniger model of otitis media. BMC Microbiol 7:56, 2007.

Hiller NL, Janto B, Hogg JS, Boissy R, Yu S, Powell E, Keefe R, Ehrlich NE, Shen K, Hayes J, Barbadora K, Klimke W, Dernovoy D, Tatusova T, Parkhill J, Bentley SD, Post JC, Ehrlich GD, Hu FZ. Comparative genomic analyses of seventeen Streptococcus pneumoniae strains: Insights into the pneumococcal supragenome. J Bacteriol 189(22):8186-8195, 2007.

Pollard AM, Onatolu KN, Hiller L, Haldar K, Knoll LJ.  Highly polymorphic family of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored surface antigens with evidence of developmental regulation in Toxoplasma gondii.  Infect Immun 76;1:103-110, 2007.

Forbes ML, Horsey E, Hiller NL, Buchinsky FJ, Hayes JD, Compliment JM, Hillman T, Ezzo S, Shen K, Keefe R, Barbadora K, Post JC, Hu FZ, Ehrlich GD.  Strain-specific virulence phenotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae assessed using the Chinchilla laniger model of otitis media.  PLoS One 3;4:e1969, 2008.

van Ooij C, Tamez P, Bhattacharjee S, Hiller NL, Harrison T, Liolios K, Kooij T, Ramesar J, Balu B, Adams J, Waters A, Janse C, Haldar K.  The malaria secretome:  From algorithms to essential function in blood stage infection.  PLoS Pathog 4(6):e1000084, 2008.

Ehrlich GD, Hiller NL, Hu FZ.  What makes pathogens pathogenic.  Genome Biol 9;6:225, 2008.

Tamez PA, Bhattacharjee S, van Ooij C, Hiller NL, LlinVs M, Balu B, Adams JH, Haldar K.  An erythrocyte vesicle protein exported by the malaria parasite promotes tubovesicular lipid import from the host cell surface.  PLoS Pathog 4;8:e1000118, 2008.

Selected Presentations and Abstracts

N. Luisa Hiller, T. Akompong, C. Olson, I.T. Ling, A.A. Holder, K. Haldar. Cholesterol Rafts in Apical Organelles of Plasmodium falciparum. American Society of Hematology, Philadelphia, PA, 2002, Poster.

N. Luisa Hiller, T. Akompong, C. Olson, I.T. Ling, A.A. Holder, K. Haldar. The Apical Organelles of the Malaria Parasite Contain Cholesterol-Rich Detergent Resistant Membranes Which May Play a Role in the Intraerythrocytic Development. Gordon Red Cell Conference, Il Ciocco, Italy, 2003, Poster.

N. Luisa Hiller, Irene Ling, Jon S. Morrow, Anthony A. Holder and Kasturi Haldar. A Malarial Homologue of Stomatin: Implications for Parasite Vacuolar Development. Molecular Parasitology Meeting, Woods Hole, MA, 2003.

N. Luisa Hiller, Travis Harrison, Sean Murphy, Benjamin Samuel, Thomas Akompong, Heidi Hamm, Narla Mohandas, Anthony Holder, Jon Morrow, Jon Lomasney, and Kasturi Haldar. Raft-based, erythrocyte G protein signaling in malarial infection. American Society of Hematology, San Diego, CA, 2003, Poster.

N. Luisa Hiller, Thomas Akompong, Jon S. Morrow, Anthony A. Holder, and Kasturi Haldar. A Malarial Homologue of Stomatin: Implications for Parasite Vacuolar Development. Molecular Approaches to Malaria Meeting, Lorne, Australia, 2004. Presented talk and poster.

N. Luisa Hiller, Christiaan van Ooij, Souvik Batthacharjee, Konstantinos Liolios, Travis Harrison, Carlos Lopez-Estrano and Kasturi Haldar. A secretome linked to targeting parasite proteins to the erythrocyte in malarial infection. Molecular Parasitology Meeting, Woods Hole, MA and ASTMH Meeting, Miami Beach, FL, 2004.

Sean C Murphy, N. Luisa Hiller, Paul Chung, S.N. Prasana Murthy, Alex Brown, Heidi E Hamm, Jon W. Lomasney, Kasturi Haldar. Multiple signaling intermediates regulate invasion of human erythrocytes by Plasmodium falciparum. Molecular Parasitology Meeting, Woods Hole, MA, 2005.

Souvik Bhattacharjee, N. Luisa Hiller, Konstantinos Liolios, Sophien Kamoun, Kasturi Haldar. Involvement of the P. falciparum host-targeting signal in a eukaryotic secretion system shared with plant pathogenic oomycetes. Molecular Parasitology Meeting, Woods Hole, MA, 2005.

Christiaan van Ooij, N. Luisa Hiller, Souvik Bhattacharjee, Travis Harrison, Konstantinos Liolios, Laura Knoll, Elizabeth Glass, Natalia Maltsev, Joe Win, Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, Carolyn Young, Sophien Kamoun and Kasturi Haldar. Conservation of pathogenic secretion signals of eukaryotic microbes used to access animal and plant hosts. Great Lakes Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease Research, Hilton Head, SC, 2005.

N. Luisa Hiller, Justin Hogg, Benjamin Janto, Jennifer Bennett, Rory Eutsey, Azad Ahmed, Garth Ehrlich, Fen Z. Hu. Identification of a host-interacting protein family in Haemophilus influenzae. 107th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, Toronto, Canada, 2007, Poster.

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