Infectious disease transmission and biology
Infectious disease research in Health and Medicine includes microbiology, virology and parasitology, and ranges from vector-borne diseases to environmental and gastrointestinal microbiology.
Our research includes laboratory and field-based experimental, statistical and computational analysis of aspects of the biology, diagnosis, epidemiology and control of organisms that cause and transmit tropical diseases, including leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, malaria, river blindness, influenza and dengue.
We also have research programs in the ecology, pathogenicity, immune response and distribution of environmental bacterial pathogens and other gastro-intestinal and environmental microbes.
Our research
Accordion
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Tropical infectious diseases
- Leishmaniasis
- African trypanosomiasis
- South American trypanosomiasis
- Dengue
- Malaria
- Filariasis
- River Blindness
- Leptospirosis
- Bioinformatics of infectious diseases
- Influenza viruses
- Dengue fever
- Host-parasite relationships in leishmaniasis
- New species of Leishmania
- Leishmaniasis in Brazil, Ghana, Thailand and diagnosis
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Insect vectors of tropical diseases
- sand flies and mosquitoes
- functional genomics of insect vectors
- insect microbiology vector control
- vector sampling
- vector population dynamics
- risk analysis
- innate immunity and immune evasion
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Environmental and gastro-intestinal microbiology
- Role of non-tubercular mycobacteria in human disease
- Pathogen ecology and evolution
- Antimicrobial resistance
- Intestinal bacterial fauna
- DNA repair in Giardia
- Human gut microbiota
- Archaeal models for studying DNA processes and antibiotic resistance in bacteria
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Statistical, computational and spatial analysis
- predict the geographic and ecological distribution of vectors and/or pathogens.
These include:- loiasis
- leptospirosis
- malaria
- meningitis
- dengue
- trypanosomiasis
- livestock diseases (Bluetongue, Schmallenberg, Foot and Mouth disease and avian influenza)
- Inference and mapping of disease transmission
- predict the geographic and ecological distribution of vectors and/or pathogens.
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Research successes
Notable research successes include:
- Discovery of the first non-sand fly vectors of leishmaniasis, day biting Forcipomyia midges (Bates)
- Studies on sand fly immunity to Leishmania and bacterial pathogens (Dillon)
- Characterisation of sobralene the sex-aggregation of the third member of the Lutzomyia longipalpis species complex (Hamilton)
- After infection with Leishmania infantum, Golden Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) become more attractive to female sand flies (Lutzomyia longipalpis) (Hamilton)
- Abdominal fat cells could aid fight against sepsis (Jackson-Jones)
- ILC2 Orchestration of Local Immune Function in Adipose Tissue (Jackson-Jones)
- Host factors restricting the replication kinetics of influenza viruses (Munir)
- Widespread occurrence of Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (Map) shown in soil and water bodies (Pickup)
- Mycobacterium avium Subspecies paratuberculosis: Human Exposure through Environmental and Domestic Aerosols(Pickup)
- Role of midges flight activity on the spread of Bluetongue in North Europe (Sedda)
- Identification key regulators in the transmission of Trypanosoma brucei (Urbaniak)
- Temporal model of the Trypanosoma brucei cell division cycle (Urbaniak)
- Dynamic phosphorylation co-ordinates the Trypanosoma brucei cell cycle post-transcriptionally (Urbaniak)
- Enteroendocrine cells-sensory sentinels of the intestinal environment and orchestrators of mucosal immunity (Worthington)
- Inflammatory cues enhance TGFβ activation by distinct subsets of human intestinal dendritic cells via integrin αvβ8(Worthington)
Microbes, Pathogens and Immunity
Research developing understanding of the cellular & molecular biology of microbes, pathogens & the immune system.
Microbes, Pathogens & ImmunityPeople
Dr Sarah Allinson: DNA repair in Giardia, trypanosomes and Trichomonas
Professor Paul Bates: Host-parasite relationships in leishmaniasis; new species of Leishmania; leishmaniasis in Ghana and Thailand
Dr Alexandre Benedetto: Host-bacterial interactions in Caenorhabditis elegans; Leishmania chemotaxis in microchips
Dr Fiona Benson: Molecular and cellular biology of DNA repair in the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei
Professor Peter Diggle: statistical modelling of spatial and temporal variation in disease risk, including loiasis in Africa, leptospirosis in Brazil, malaria in Malawi and meningitis epidemic forecasting in sub-Saharan Africa
Dr Derek Gatherer: Bioinformatics of infectious diseases and Systems Biology
Dr Gordon Hamilton: Chemical ecology of insect vectors; vector control; synthetic chemistry
Dr Lucy Jackson-Jones:Immunological response to infection & inflammation
Professor Paul McKean: Molecular and cellular biology of the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei
Dr Muhammad Munir: Host-virus interactions in diverse avian and mammalian species, zoonotic viruses
Professor Jackie Parry: Interkingdom signalling between bacteria and Protists and the evolution of the endocannabinoid system
Professor Roger Pickup: Role of non-tubercular mycobacteria in human disease; pathogen ecology and antimicrobial resistance
Dr Rachael Rigby: Human gut microbiota; cytokines; immunology; cancer biology; microbiome; metabolome
Dr Stephen Roberts: Electrophysiology; ion channels; cell biology; fungi and plants
Dr Nick Robinson: Archaeal models for studying DNA replication, repair, ubiquitin-like modifications and protein homeostasis
Dr Federico Rojas Martinez: Protein modification and quorum sensing in Trypanosomes
Dr Luigi Sedda: Vector population dynamics for disease distribution, spread and dynamics
Dr Mick Urbaniak: Signalling pathways in Trypanosoma brucei and related parasites, cell cycle regulation, host – parasite relationships in African trypanosomes, proteomics
Dr Leonie Unterholzner: Innate immunity; DNA viruses; Leishmania immune evasion; DNA damage
Dr John Worthington: Gut immunity; epithelial enteroendocrine cells; helminth infections and inflammatory bowel disease
Dr Karen Wright: Cellular and molecular mechanisms of the cannabinoid system, 2D and 3D modelling