Parasitology
Image courtesy of Emeritus Professor David W. Halton.
The Parasitology research group focuses largely on helminth therapeutics based on understanding drug action and resistance, identifying and validating new drug targets and developing methods to exploit these targets in drug discovery and parasite control. Other research themes include parasite genetics, the epidemiology of helminth and arthropod parasites and horizon scanning for emerging parasite threats to local agriculture.
With global parasite burdens in humans, animals and plants on the rise and the increasing threats of disease spread with climate change.
Research efforts are based in bespoke molecular biology / biochemistry, physiology and bioimaging research laboratories in the Medical Biology Centre adjacent to the main University campus.
The Director of Research is Professor Aaron Maule and research falls into 7 interwoven categories:
 Cell biology & genetics: |
Alan Trudgett |
| Drug / Vaccine target discovery & validation: |
Aaron Maule |
| Neurobiology & behaviour: |
Angela Mousley |
| Therapeutics & control: |
Ian Fairweather |
| Ultrastructure / bioimaging: |
Gerard Brennan |
| Veterinary parasitology & epidemiology: |
Nikki Marks |
Our strategy links closely the basic and applied elements of the research with efforts ranging from parasite genetics and the establishment of new gene silencing platforms to the testing of new anti-parasite drug combinations.
Research funding / Relationships with other research organizations & major international companies
International collaboration is commonplace with strong research links with researchers in mainland Europe, North America, India and South East Asia. Evidence of international collaborations can be seen in research papers/outputs associated with the parasitology staff.
The Parasitology group attracts funding from primary research funders (EU Framework Programmes, Leverhulme Trust, UK Research Councils, The Royal Society, Wellcome Trust) as well as local government (Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) and several of the major international pharmaceutical companies.
