Dr Cristina Giogha

Cristina Giogha obtained her B. Sc. (Hons) majoring in microbiology and immunology from the University of Melbourne in 2017. She relocated to the Hudson Institute in 2018 where she is currently Leader of Gastrointestinal Infection Research within the Innate Immune Responses to Infection laboratory. In 2018 she was awarded one of six prestigious Victoria Fellowships in the Life Sciences category, which supported her during a two month study mission at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York where she received training in genetic editing of intestinal organoids. In 2019 she received the Lorne Infection and Immunity Career Development Award, and was nominated as a Hudson Institute Emerging Leader, taking part in the inaugural Leadership Program in 2020.

Gastrointestinal illness is a significant cause of sickness and death around the world, particularly in young children. Cristina studies a range of medically important bacteria that cause gastroenteritis such as E. coli, Salmonella and Shigella. These disease-causing bacteria block the human immune response that would otherwise help to eliminate the infection. Each pathogen injects a set of virulence proteins into human cells to interrupt cell signaling pathways. Cristina’s work aims to understand exactly how these bacterial proteins exert their activity and to use this information to design and develop more effective vaccines and treatments for gastrointestinal disease.

Selected publications

  • Pearson JS*, Giogha C*, Mühlen S, Nachbur U, Pham CLL, Zhang Y, Hildebrand JM, Oates CV, Wong Fok Lung T, Ingle DJ, Dagley LF, Bankovacki A, Petrie EJ, Schroeder GN, Crepin VF, Frankel G, Masters SL, Vince J, Murphy JM, Saunde M, Webb AI, Silke J, Hartland EL (2017). EspL is a bacterial cysteine protease effector that cleaves RHIM proteins to block necroptosis and inflammation. Nature microbiology, 2:16258 *joint first authors

  • Pollock GL, Grishin AM, Giogha C, Gan J, Oates CV, McMillan PJ, Gaeta I, Tyska MJ, Pearson JS, Scott NE, Cygler M, Hartland EL (2022). Targeting of microvillus protein Eps8 by the NleH effector kinases from enteropathogenic E. coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 119(34):e2204332119.

  • Giogha C*, Scott NE*, Wong Fok Lung T, Pollock GL, Harper M, Goddard-Borger ED, Pearson JS, Hartland EL (2021). NleB2 from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli is a novel arginine-glucose transferase effector. PLoS Pathogens, 17(6):e1009658 *joint first authors

  • Gan J, Scott NE, Newson JPM, Wibawa RR, Wong Fok Lung T, Pollock GL, Ng GZ, van Driel I, Pearson JS, Hartland EL*, Giogha C* (2020). The Salmonella Effector SseK3 Targets Small Rab GTPases. Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology, 10: 419.*Co-corresponding authors

  • Giogha C, Wong Fok Lung T, Mühlen S, Pearson JS, Hartland EL (2015). Substrate recognition by the zinc metalloprotease effector NleC from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. Cellular microbiology, 17:1766-1778.

  • Pearson JS, Giogha C, Ong SY, Kennedy CL, Kelly M, Robinson KS, Wong Fok Lung T, Mansell A, Riedmaier P, Oates CV, Zaid A, Mühlen S, Crepin VF, Marches O, Ang CS, Williamson NA, O’Reilly LA, Bankovacki A, Nachbur U, Infusini G, Webb AI, Silke J, Strasser A, Frankel G, Hartland EL (2013). A type III effector antagonizes death receptor signalling during bacterial gut infection. Nature, 501:247- 251.