About the Project
This 4-year PhD studentship is offered in Prof Jean Langhorne’s Group based at the Francis Crick Institute (the Crick) and Dr George Christophides’s Group based at Imperial College London.
Malaria remains one of the most devastating infectious diseases, killing over half a million people every year. The Plasmodium parasite that causes malaria is transmitted between humans by Anopheles mosquito bites. Within the mosquito, malaria parasites undergo complex and finely regulated developmental processes including sexual reproduction, zygote differentiation and traversal of the midgut cell wall. These processes are associated with various mosquito responses including a sequence of immune reactions that are responsible for substantial parasite losses, often leading to premature termination of transmission. Nonetheless, a small number of parasites evade these immune responses and develop to oocysts. The mosquito immune reactions and the parasite immune evasion mechanisms have been characterised in detail at the Imperial DoLS-based laboratory. Using rodent malaria models, the Crick-based laboratory has recently shown that the low parasite virulence in the mouse host is associated with the parasite’s passage through the mosquito. These data suggest that parasite natural selection, perhaps involving epigenetic mechanisms, may occur in the mosquito, which is important for the establishment of parasitism in the host. This joint PhD project is set up to examine whether the parasite population bottleneck in the mosquito gut is indeed the critical filter by which less virulent parasites are selected to complete transmission and investigate the link between mosquito immune evasion and parasite virulence.
Talented and motivated students passionate about doing research are invited to apply for this PhD position. The successful applicant will join the Crick PhD Programme in September 2017 and will register for their PhD at Imperial College London.
Applicants should hold or expect to gain a first/upper second-class honours degree or equivalent in a relevant subject and have appropriate research experience as part of, or outside of, a university degree course and/or a Masters degree in a relevant subject.
APPLICATIONS MUST BE MADE ONLINE VIA OUR WEBSITE BY 12NOON GMT NOVEMBER 14TH 2016. APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IN ANY OTHER FORMAT.
https://www.crick.ac.uk/about-us/jobs-and-study/phd-programme/
Funding Notes
Successful applicants will be awarded a non-taxable annual stipend of £22,000 plus payment of university tuition fees. As well as meeting the standard eligibility criteria, applicants to this position will be expected to hold either a 4-year undergraduate/MSci degree (at 2.1 level or higher), or a 3-year undergraduate degree plus a Masters degree. Non-EU applicants are not eligible for the funding for this project.
References
1. Povelones, M., R. M. Waterhouse, F. C. Kafatos and G. K. Christophides (2009)
Leucine-rich repeat protein complex activates mosquito complement in defense against Plasmodium parasites.
Science 324: 258-261.
2. Spence, P. J., W. Jarra, P. Levy, A. J. Reid, L. Chappell, T. Brugat, M. Sanders, M. Berriman and J. Langhorne (2013)
Vector transmission regulates immune control of Plasmodium virulence.
Nature 498: 228–231.
3. Spence, P. J., T. Brugat and J. Langhorne (2015)
Mosquitoes reset malaria parasites.
PLOS Pathogens 11: e1004987.
4. Molina-Cruz, A., L. S. Garver, A. Alabaster, L. Bangiolo, A. Haile, J. Winikor, C. Ortega, B. C. van Schaijk, R. W. Sauerwein, E. Taylor-Salmon and C. Barillas-Mury (2013)
The human malaria parasite Pfs47 gene mediates evasion of the mosquito immune system.
Science 340: 984-987.
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