Previous Speakers

London Molecular Parasitology Club

2023

Bonnie Webster

Natural History Museum, UK
“The complexed relationships of the African Schistosoma species”

Friedrich Frischknecht

Heidelberg University Medical School, Germany
“Divergent actin and microtubule nucleating complexes in malaria parasites”

Michael Lewis

LSHTM, London, UK
“Experimental Digestive Chagas Disease”

Moritz Treeck

Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
“Evolution and function of the P. falciparum FIKK kinase family”

Calvin Tiengwe

Imperial College London, UK
“The battle for iron between African trypanosomes and their vertebrate hosts”

Mara Lawniczak

Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK
“The Malaria Cell Atlas - Mali Edition”

Richard Wheeler

University of Oxford, UK
“What can we learn from genome-wide protein localisations in a parasite?”

Leann Tilley

University of Melbourne, Australia
“High resolution imaging reveals unexpected roles of the P. falciparum mitotic machinery in schizogony and gametocytogenesis”

2022

Melissa Hart

Royal Veterinary College, London, UK
“How do malaria parasites invade red blood cells and are there species-specific mechanisms?”

Michael Lewis

LSHTM, London, UK
“Experimental Digestive Chagas Disease”

Josie Ferreira

Birkbeck College, UK
“Structural plasticity of Plasmodium's microtubule cytoskeleton revealed by cryo-ET”

Joana Faria

University of York, UK
“The VEXing problem of allelic exclusion in African trypanosomes”

2020

Adam Sateriale

Francis Crick Institute, UK
“Domesticating a parasite: exploring cryptosporidiosis with a natural mouse model”

Elena A. Levashina

Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Germany
“Metabolic regulation of Plasmodium development within mosquito”

2019

Eva Frickel

Francis Crick Institute, UK
“Immune-mediated control of Toxoplasma in human cells”

Richard McCulloch

University of Glasgow, UK
“How on earth does Leishmania replicate its nuclear genome?”

Jack Sunter

Oxford Brookes University, UK
Leishmania flagellar pocket architecture is crucial for pathogenicity”

Till Voss

Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute
“CRISPR/Cas9-engineered parasites offer new possibilities for basic and applied research on P. falciparum gametocytes”

Bungo Akiyoshi

University of Oxford, UK
“Understanding the mechanism of chromosome segregation: lessons from kinetoplastid parasites”

Ed Tate

Imperial College London, UK
“Validation of NMT as an antimalarial drug target”

2018

Michael Delves

Imperial College London, UK
“High throughput discovery of new drugs targeting malaria parasite transmission - towards the altruistic antimalarial”

Gerald Spaeth

Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
“The good, the bad, and the ugly: Leishmania genome instability as a driver of evolutionary adaptation in the field and in culture”

Terry Smith

University of St Andrews, UK
“Exploiting parasite weaknesses in lipid and associated metabolism”

Marcus Lee

Wellcome Sanger Institute, UK
“Exploiting drug resistance to identify antimalarial targets”

Mattie Pawlowic

Wellcome Center for Anti-Infectives Research (CAIR), University of Dundee, UK

David Horn

Wellcome Center for Anti-Infectives Research (CAIR), University of Dundee, UK

2017

Sam Alsford

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Henry Staines

St George’s University of London

Andrew Blagborough

Imperial College London

Andrew Osborne

Birkbeck University of London

Martin Taylor

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Mark Carrington

University of Cambridge
“Codon use is the major determinant of mRNA levels in trypanosomes”

Mathias Marti

University of Glasgow
“Revisiting the biology of malaria transmission in an era of elimination”

Keith Gull

Professor of Molecular Microbiology, The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford
2017 Biochemical Society Award Medal: Presentation and Lecture. “The extreme biology of the African trypanosome”. Insights into cell biology, pathogenicity and evolution — and future careers in research

Anastasios D. Tsaousis

University of Kent
“A novel cell culture platform for Cryptosporidium that enables long-term cultivation and new tools for systematic investigation of its biology”

Jeremy Mottram

University of York
“Protein kinases and life cycle progression in trypanosomatids”

Catherine Merrick

University of Keele, UK
“Quadruplexes, helicases and DNA replication dynamics in the P. falciparum genome: It is life, Jim, but not as we do it.”

Julius Lukes

Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
“All that is hidden shall be revealed: surprises in monoxenous insect trypanosomatids”

2016

Edgar Deu

The Francis Crick Institute, London
“Chemical Biology Approaches to Identify and Study Antimalarial Targets”

Dominique Soldati-Favre

University of Geneva
“The ins and outs of Toxoplasma invasion and egress from infected cells”

Sue Vaughan

Oxford Brookes University
“Basal body biogenesis in Trypanosoma brucei

Matthew Child

Imperial College London
“Small-molecule tricks to solve a redox chaperone puzzle in Toxoplasma: How TgDJ-1 regulates microneme secretion”

Lucy Glover

Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
“DNA repair and Antigenic Variation in African trypanosomes”

Sanjeev Krishna

St Georges Hospital, London
“Controversies around artemisinin”

2015

James MacRae

MRC, NIMR London
"Lipid metabolism in Toxoplasma gondii – Routes for drug therapy?"

Moritz Treeck

MRC, NIMR London
"How do apicomplexan parasites regulate the interaction with their host cell?”

Etienne Pays

Université Libre de Bruxelles
“Molecular arms race between African trypanosomes and humans”

Matthew Higgins

University of Oxford
“Structural insights into severe malaria”

Christine Clayton

ZMBH, Heidelberg
“Networks of gene expression control in trypanosomes”

Oliver Billker

Sanger Institute
“Reverse genetic screening in a malaria parasite”

Anthony A Holder

The Francis Crick Institute, London
“37 years of Molecular Parasitology - a personal reflection”

2014

Bill Wickstead

University of Nottingham, UK
"Structure and evolution of the 'VSGnome': the VSG repertoire of Trypanosoma brucei Lister 427 strain"

Jacob Baum

Imperial College London, UK
"High definition imaging of malaria parasites; achieving 'Superb' resolution"

Paul Kaye

University of York, UK
"Towards a molecular and cellular understanding of splenomegaly: potential new therapies for visceral leishmaniasis"

Andrew Tobin

MRC Toxicology Unit Leicester, UK
"Global phospho-proteomics reveals a novel relationship between PfPKG and PfCDPK1"

Keith Matthews

University of Edinburgh
“Environmental sensing and cell-cell communication in African trypanosomes”

Ross Waller

Univerity of Cambridge
“Invasion and apicoplast evolution in Alveolates: lessons from the relatives”

2013

Gloria Rudenko

Imperial College London, UK
“Epigenetic control of transcription in African trypanosomes”

Michael Blackman

MRC NIMR, London, UK
“What does MSP1 do? Functional analysis of a malaria vaccine candidate”

George K. Christophides

Imperial College London, UK
"Bloc[king] Malaria Trans[mission] in the last 5 years: the fight within the vector"

David Conway

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
"Parasite population genomics identifies targets of immunity"

Mark C.  Field

University of Cambridge, UK
"Endocytic pathways in African trypanosomes: Probing novel functions by proteomics"

David Baker

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
"The role of cGMP signalling in blood stage and mosquito stage malaria parasite"

2012

Bob Sinden

Imperial College London
“Understanding the Transmission Blocking Potential of Antimalarial Compounds”

Keith Gull

University of Oxford
“Morphogenesis, Differentiation and Pathogenicity of Kinetoplastid Parasites”

Jayne Raper

New York Medical Center, USA
“The evolution of primate trypanosome lytic factor, an anti-microbial high density lipoprotein”

Kasturi Haldar

University of Notre Dame, USA
“Endoplasmic reticulum PI(3)P lipid binding targets malaria proteins to host cell”

Rob Moon

MRC NIMR, London, UK
“Continuous in vitro culture of Plasmodium knowlesi in human erythrocytes: a genetically tractable human malarial pathogen”

Harry de Koning

University of Glasgow, UK
“Assessment of pyrimidine biosynthesis and salvage pathways as drug targets in Trypanosoma brucei: pipeline or pipe dream?”

2011

David Horn

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
“RNAi libraries for the identification of drug targets and drug resistance mechanisms in African trypanosomes”

Rita Tewari

Nottingham University
“Systematic functional studies to unravel malaria parasite biology and identify putative drug and vaccine targets”

Wendy Gibson

University of Bristol
“A spotlight on meiosis and mating in trypanosomes”

Janet Cox-Singh

Saint Georges Hospital London
“Anti-inflamatory cytokines in acute Plasmodium knowlesi malaria”

Julian Rayner

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
“Identification of an erythrocyte receptor essential for invasion by Plasmodium falciparum merozoites”

Shane Wilkinson

Queen Mary, University of London
“Trypanocidal activity of nitroaromatic pro-drugs: solving a 40 year old question?”

2010

Mark Carrington

University of Cambridge
“Post-transcriptional control of a whole genome”

Michael Povelones

Imperial College London
“How mosquitoes kill malaria parasites”

Colin Sutherland

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
“A mystery in molecular diagnostics; the case of missing malaria parasite”

David Ferguson

Oxford University John Radcliffe Hospital
“Continuing role of microscopy in apicoplexan research”

Ingrid Muller

Imperial College London
“Manipulation and exploitation of mammalian L-arginine metabolism by Leishmania parasites”

Henry Staines

Saint Georges Hospital London
“Membrane transport and the plasmodial liver stage”

2009

Adrian Hill

Oxford University
“Malaria Vaccines: a TRAP and a Grand Challenge”

Sarah Sebastian

Imperial College London
“Regulatable gene expression in Plasmodium: an overview of available tools”

John Kelly

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
“Exploring chromosome segregation in trypanosomes and malaria parasites”

Dominic Kwiatkowski

Oxford University
“Genomic epidemiology of malaria”

2008

Damer Blake

Institute for Animal Health, Compton
“Eimeria genes, genomics and genetic mapping”

Nikolai Windbichler

Imperial College London
“I-PpoI: Shredding the X chromosome of Anopheles gambiae”

Kleoniki Gounaris

Imperial College London
“Secreted proteins of Trichinella spiralis modulate purinergic signalling in immune cells”