I am working within Professor Gavin Wright's research group, investigating a group of malaria proteins called RIFINs that the parasite places on the surface of human red blood cells during infection. It has recently emerged that these malaria proteins may play an important role in modulating the response of the human immune system to infection, allowing malaria parasites to evade immune destruction and continue their proliferative cycle in host red blood cells. I am using the high throughput interaction screening technology in Professor Wright's group to map exactly how malaria RIFIN proteins interact with the human immune system and help us better understand how cases of severe malaria develop.
I began my research career at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, working under Professor Oreste Acuto to investigate protein arginine methylation in T-lymphocyte signalling. I then moved to the Unversity of Lancaster, working with Professor Steven Sinkins on the mechanism of viral inhibition by the bacterium Wolbachia. Subsequently, I moved to the University of York and worked under Professor Jeremy Mottram on the kinetochore in Leishmania parasites.
I am interested in host-pathogen interactions and have an extensive background in applying mass spectrometry based proteomics to understand how pathogens modulate the host to enable their survival and replication. I also have an interest in the fundamental biology of pathogens.