HUM-MOLGEN events: Beating Malaria 2014

Catherine Mullié obtained a PhD in Microbiology and a PharmD at the University of Lille, France, in 1999. After a post-doc year at the Faculté de Medicine in Amiens (Laboratoire d’Immunologie, INSERM-EMI 0351), she became assistant professor at the Faculté de Pharmacie in Amiens in 2000 and joined the LG-2A (Laboratoire de Glycochimie des Antimicrobiens et des Agroressources, FRE-CNRS 3517) in 2008, in the team headed by Pr. Sonnet. The team current research is focused on the development of new antimicrobial and antimalarial drugs, with a special interest in the synthesis and biological evaluation of molecules bearing asymmetric carbons.

Colin Wright studied pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy, University of London, and worked in hospital and community pharmacy before returning to carry out research on antimalarial and antiamoebic natural products, obtaining his Ph.D in 1989. He has continued his research at Bradford School of Pharmacy since 1994 particulary on the theme of antimalarial drug development from natural products.

Frederick Addai is an Associate Professor, whose 10-year research in 2004 affirmed healthful gains of consuming good cocoa products. He has supervised ten graduate studies on health benefits of cocoa, and spawned many more independent studies. Personal, and community anedcotal experiences with daily consumtpion of cocoa as unsweetned beverage, provoked research that confirms antimalarial activity of natural cocoa. He has given numerous print and electronic media presentations locally and internationally; including invited talks at the 15th International Cocoa Research Conference (ICRC) in Costa Rica, and 69th General Assembly and Council of Ministers Meeting of the Cocoa Producers’ Alliance (COPAL), Abidjan, La Cote d’Ivoire.

José M. Bautista obtained his Ph.D. in 1987, completed postdoctoral training at the University of London-Royal Postgraduate Medical School, and joined the faculty of Complutense University of Madrid as an Assistant Professor in 1991. He has been visiting scientist at Imperial College of Medicine –Hammersmith Hospital (London), Institute of Genetics and Biophysics (Naples), University for Developmental Studies (Tamale-Ghana) and Cheikh Anta Diop University (Dakar-Senegal). Full Professor since 2007 at present direct the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology IV at Complutense University of Madrid and the research group Translational Haematology II at the Research Institute Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid. Dr. Bautista's research is on improving preclinical models of malaria and highthoughput proteomic methods to determine long term effect of antimalarials including immune response.

Britta Urban obtained a PhD at the Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany in 1996, investigating complement resistance of Enatamoeba histolytica. She joined the David Roberts' laboratory at Oxford University on a Research Fellowship awarded by the German Research Council to study immune responses toPlasmodium falciparum malaria. She demonstrated that P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes modulate dendritic cell phenotype and function in vitro. These results formed the basis of a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship where she investigated the role of dendritic cells in natural malaria infection in close collaboration with the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme in Kilifi, Kenya. She was awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship in 2006 and has now moved with her group to Kilifi to study cellular immune responses to PfEMP-1. She is particularly interested to investigate whether the phenotypic properties of a given parasite isolate influence the immune response to that isolate.

Giulia Boselli is a passionate Global Health Specialist interested in improving the access to essential medicines. She has started working at the World Health Organization where she designed and implemented a cost effective analysis in Laos for the Neglected Tropical diseases Department. Over the last years she has been enhancing her knowledge on the issues concerning the opportunities and hurdles to making malaria drug available in low income countries, working at Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and at Population Service International (PSI). During her last experience she supervised a research on the availability and affordability of antimalarial drugs in East Africa.

An NHMRC Public Health Fellow, Freya Fowkes is Head of the Malaria and Infectious Disease Epidemiology group at the Burnet Institute. Freya is involved primarily in examining the epidemiology of malaria in particular analysing malaria immuno-epidemiological data from large population-based studies. She completed her doctorate in 2007 at the University of Oxford and has held research associate positions at the New York University School of Medicine and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Currently, Freya holds an adjunct senior research fellow position at Monash University and is an honorary fellow of the University of Melbourne.

Diana S. Hansen completed her PhD in 1998 at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She turned to malaria research during her postdoctoral training at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, where she investigated inflammatory responses involved in the induction of cerebral malaria. Diana is now a Laboratory Head in the Division of Infection and Immunity at WEHI and an Executive Member of the Victorian Infection and Immunity Network. Her main research interests include mechanisms of pathogenesis and immunity to malaria, and she is pursuing those goals using infection models as well as humans studies.

Additional confirmed speakers include

Dr Britta Urban, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom
Dr Pierre Guermonprez, Center for Molecular and Cellular Biology of Inflammation, King's College London, United Kingdom
Dr Glenn McConkey, Senior Lecturer, School of Biology, University of Leeds, UK
Dr Kathy Andrews, Associate Professor, Tropical Parasitology Lab, Griffith University, Australia
Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni, Senior health & HIV policy advisor, Oxfam GB
Mr Aditya Jha, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India
Dr Bhargavi Rao, Honorary Clinical Research Fellow, Imperial College London, UK
Professor Andrew Taylor-Robinson, Professor of Immunology/Haematology & Deputy Dean Research | School of Medical & Applied Sciences CQ University Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

Beating Malaria 2014 - London