Joanne Thompson
- Institute of Immunology and Infection Research
- Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution
- School of Biological Sciences
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 651 3625
- Email: Joanne.Thompson@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
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Rm. 3.09. Ashworth Laboratories.
- City
- Post code
Background
1989 PhD. Institute of Neurology. University of London
1989-1992 Postdoc: ICRF Developmental Biology Unit, Oxford
1992-1996 Department of Biology, Imperial College, London
1996-1998 EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany
1999-2001 Leiden University Medical Centre, The Netherlands
2001-2010 MRC Research Fellow: University of Edinburgh
2010-Present Senior Lecturer in Molecular Parasitology, University of Edinburgh
Undergraduate teaching
Microorganisms, Infection and Immunity 2
Parasite Biology 3
Medical Microbiology 3
Immunobiology of Malaria (Hons.)
Cell Biology of Parasites (Hons.)
Research summary
The malaria parasite has a surprisingly complex life cycle in its vertebrate host and mosquito vector and is capable of interacting with and invading a range of host tissues. In establishing a long-lasting infection in mammalian hosts, the parasite must also detect and respond to changes in its cellular environment and modulate the development of an effective host immune response. My primary research interest lies in exploring these host-parasite interactions at the molecular and cellular level; in particular carrying out functional analyses of parasite integral-membrane proteins that share features with G-Protein Coupled Receptors and Tumour Necrosis Factor Receptors and so are implicated in signal transduction and immunomodulation.
These studies have also recently led to the development of gene transformation technologies in Plasmodium chabaudi; the experimental malaria parasite model that most closely resembles human malaria infection. This has opened the way to directly visualize host immune cell-parasite interactions and to investigate immune responses to parasites in which candidate immunomodulatory genes have been deleted.