Parasitology

BIOGRAPHY

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
My main interests are in the genetic diversity and evolution of gut protozoan parasites, especially Entamoeba histolytica, the agent responsible for amoebic dysentery and amoebic liver abscesses, other species of Entamoeba, and Blastocystis, an organism of uncertain pathogenicity. I was involved in the E. histolytica genome project and presently work on comparative Entamoeba genomics. The work on Blastocystis has focussed on sequencing its mitochondrial genome in an attempt to understand the function of the organelle in this anaerobic organism. Genome sequencing of Blastocystis and its relative Proteromonas is being undertaken. Genetic diversity, both within and between species, is being explored in both Entamoeba and Blastocystis.


EDUCATION:
1980 B.Sc. with 1st Class Honours Department of Zoology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland Undergraduate Honours Thesis: The distribution of 5-methylcytosine in the DNA of plants
June, 1989 Ph.D. Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
Ph.D. Thesis: Genome structure and evolution in the amoeboflagellate Naegleria gruberi


AWARDS:
1980 Ashworth Prize in Zoology