Curriculum vitae

Aletta Karsies van Eeden
(for contact details please send email to aletta@email.com)

Experience

2001 - Sept. 2003
Postdoctoral Associate with Prof. Dr. Manfred Heinlein, until March 2003 at the Friedrich Miescher Institute and since April 2003 at the Botanical Institute of the University of Basel in Basel, Switzerland.

• Testing whether RNA interference is involved in the inhibition of virus infection in plants upon chemical induction of resistance.
• Analysing the effect of chemical induction of resistance on the spread of Tobacco mosaic virus by high resolution fluorescence microscopy.
• Developing assays to test the effect of a viral movement protein on the local and systemic spread of silencing through the plant.
• Taught and supervised a Diploma student in performing a two-hybrid screen for movement protein - host protein interactions.

1996 - 2000
Ph.D. student in the group of Prof. Dr. Thomas Hohn at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, Switzerland.

• Characterisation of protein degradation signals by transfection of plant protoplasts and mammalian cell lines.
• Studying the regulated nuclear targeting of a viral capsid protein.
• Determination of cleavage sites of a viral protease.

1995
Research assistant at the department of Virology of Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands

• Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) glycoproteins and their transport through the plant cell.

1993 - 1994
M.Sc. thesis projects

• Legumes Virology Unit, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India - Resistance in groundnut against Peanut Bud Necrosis Virus (PBNV).
• Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish Agricultural University, Uppsala, Sweden - Fusion of Brassica napus and Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts by polyethyleneglycol.
• Department of Plant Breeding, Wageningen Agricultural University - Expression of Escherichia coli branching enzyme in transgenic potato.
• Department of Horticulture, Wageningen Agricultural University - Influence of phenolics on the rooting of Syringa vulgaris stem pieces in vitro.

1989 - 1995
I partially financed my M.Sc. studies with part-time jobs. Among others, I have worked in teaching at several practical courses in cell biology and plant breeding.

Education

1996 - 2001
Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Basel, Switzerland

1989 - 1995
M.Sc. degree in Plant breeding at the Wageningen Agricultural University, the Netherlands.
During the first 3.5 years of my study I passed exams and practical courses on biochemistry, molecular biology, tissue and cell culture, genetics, phytopathology, virology and other related topics. During the last 2.5 years I participated in several research projects, listed in the previous section.

Courses:

• 1998, Novartis Services AG, Personalentwicklung: Effective Presentation Skills
• 1997, Universität Zürich-Irchel, SKMB/PhD course: Protein-Function and Protein-Protein Interaction
• 1993, Internationale Agrarische Hogeschool Larenstein: Safe working with radioactive material and radiation sources.

Personal details

Date of birth: April 10th, 1971
Nationality: Netherlands
Marital status: Married (since 2001), two daughters (2002 and 2004)

Personal information and other skills

I was a member of a student badminton club for four years, of which I was on the committee for one year. Since coming to Switzerland I enjoy skiing, climbing and hiking in the mountains. I have enjoyed reading ever since I was able to. I speak fluent Dutch, English and German and reasonable French and have a Swiss driving license. Computer skills: Good knowledge of windows in general, office applications, GCG Seqweb and digital photo editing.

References

available on request

Publications

A. Karsies, T. Hohn, and D. Leclerc (2001) Degradation signals within both terminal domains of the cauliflower mosaic virus capsid protein precursor. Plant J. 27:335-343.
A. Karsies, T. Merkle, B. Szurek, U. Bonas, T. Hohn and D. Leclerc (2002) Regulated nuclear targeting of cauliflower mosaic virus. J. Gen. Virol. 83:1783-1790.
Y. Chapdelaine, D. Kirk, A. Karsies, T. Hohn, and D. Leclerc (2002) Mutation of capsid protein phosphorylation sites abolishes cauliflower mosaic virus infectivity. J. Virol. 76:11748-11752.

International Meeting Reports

A. Karsies and M. Heinlein (2001) Characterization of the mechanism involved in the inhibition of virus infection in plants upon chemical induction of resistance. Poster at the Plasmodesma 2001 Conference, Cape Town, South Africa. Abstract p.62.
A. Karsies, T. Merkle, T. Hohn, and D. Leclerc (2000) Processing of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) ORF IV protein removes degradation signals and plays a role in regulation of nuclear targeting. Poster at the ELSO 2000 Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland. Abstract nr. 443.
A. Karsies, D. Leclerc, and T. Hohn (1998) Processing of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) ORF IV protein. Poster at the EMBO workshop Import / export: Viruses and microbes meet the nuclear pore, Leysin, VD, Switzerland. Abstract nr. 9
A. Himmelbach, A. Karsies, and T. Hohn (1996) Association of the CaMV transactivator (ORF VI) with the translational machinery. Poster at the 1996 Meeting on Translational Control, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA. Abstract p. 113.