Events Calendar
To Thursday 26 January 2017
Speaker: Professor David J Conway
Title: Malaria Parasite Adaptation - Relevance to Epidemiology and Control
Venue: Faculty Meeting Room, Level 3, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Time: 2.30 p.m.
Date: 25 January 2017 (Wednesday)
About the Speaker:
Professor David Conway is currently the Head of the Department of Pathogen Molecular Biology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Malaria Research Centre, UNIMAS. He was previously the Head of the Malaria Research Programme at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratories in the Gambia (2005-2010).
Prof Conway leads a research group with a focus on malaria, and is particularly interested in: (i) the effects of natural selection on parasite antigens, (ii) naturally acquired immune responses, (iii) the effects of different epidemiological situations on parasite population genetic structures, (iv) erythrocyte invasion phenotypes of merozoites. His research is currently funded by an ERC Advanced Award for 'Parasite population genomics and functional studies towards development of a blood stage malaria vaccine', an MRC Grant on ‘Malaria parasite population structure and adaptation on the edge of endemic distribution in Africa’, and a Royal Society-Leverhulme Trust award with Dr Gordon Awandare on 'Targets and patterns of erythrocyte invasion inhibitory antibody responses in malaria'. He has previously held 14 other research grants at LSHTM (8 from the Wellcome Trust, 3 from the MRC, 2 from the European Union, and 1 from the Royal Society-Leverhulme Trust).
Prof Conway works with colleagues in several countries in West Africa, as well as Kenya and Malaysia. He has previously worked on other infectious diseases including trachoma and strongyloidiasis. He was a member of the WHO/TDR Steering Committee on Pathogenesis and Applied Genomics (involved review of WHO/TDR applications) from 2004-2008. He has also reviewed grant applications for the Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, the Swiss National Science Foundation, The National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the Royal Society and The Leverhulme Trust. He is a member of the Faculty of 1000 Biology. He has published over 170 research articles.
