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Institut für Parasitologie

Lauren  Galloway

Lauren Galloway

  • PhD Student

Biography: I graduated from the University of Glasgow with an MSci in Parasitology in 2019. Throughout my undergraduate degree, I worked on a number of research projects covering several parasites. My first two projects involved investigating antigenic variation in African trypanosomes under the supervision of Professor Richard McCulloch and Dr Emma Briggs here at the University of Glasgow. Thereafter, I spent a year at The Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) on a work placement where I investigated asymptomatic malaria, anaemia and neutrophil function under the supervision of Professor Eleanor Riley and Dr Jason Mooney. As part of the project, I participated in field work at the MRC in The Gambia. In 2018, I became an Amgen Scholar at the Institut Pasteur, working on optimising ddPCR to determine the proportion of piperaquine resistant Plasmodium falciparum. For my final year project, I investigated nucleotide and energy metabolism in growth arrested persister type Leishmania under the supervision of Professor Mike Barrett. In September of 2019, I joined the Marti Lab as a Precision Medicine PhD student.

Research Interests: For my PhD project, I am exploring Plasmodium falciparum novel binding interactions in the haematopoietic niche of the host. The haematopoietic niche of the bone marrow - and possibly the spleen - has recently been identified as a major reservoir of malaria parasites, both in the asexual and sexual stages of their life cycle. My project will focus on the asexual stages within this niche and whether they display any novel binding phenotypes. While asexual sequestration is not unusual, the bone marrow offers a unique physiological environment which may permit unique interactions. Indeed, from preliminary data, it appears that asexuals within the bone marrow are distinct from those that sequester in other organs of the host.