My active research interests are in the area of global health and particularly parasitic infectious diseases that have a devastating effect on the livelihood of people living in the most disadvantaged parts of the world. My group uses biochemical approaches and recombinant protein technologies to investigate host:parasite interactions and identify new vaccine candidates.

I graduated in Human Genetics and obtained my PhD at the Paris 7 – Denis Diderot University (France), working on the role of the JAGGED1 surface receptor in Alagille syndrome, a pathology of the Notch signalling pathway. As a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow, I then moved to Cancer Research UK, London to study the role of Notch signalling in intestinal cell differentiation before joining the Wellcome Sanger Institute as a senior staff scientist where I expanded my work on cell surface proteins to study host:pathogen interactions. I used high-throughput approaches to select and recombinantly express in mammalian cells membrane-tethered and secreted proteins, which represent the cell-surface repertoire of parasites and their host cells. My work initially focussed on Plasmodium falciparum, responsible for the most severe form of malaria, and its interaction with human erythrocytes, which led to the identification of the Rh5:Basigin ligand:receptor pair that is essential for parasite entry into the red blood cell. I also developed a large library of recombinant cell surface and secreted proteins from Schistosoma mansoni, responsible for intestinal schistosomiasis, which I used in serological and vaccine studies.

I moved to the University of York in 2021 and was awarded an MRC Career Development Award to continue my work on Schistosoma mansoni and, in particular, to investigate how the parasite can manipulate its host’s immune response. The aim of this work is to shed light on new vaccine candidates against schistosomiasis and provide additional tools in the control of allergic and auto-immune responses.

Our main research interest centres on the identification of host:pathogen interactions, with a focus on parasites responsible for neglected tropical diseases. We select and recombinantly express in mammalian cells membrane-tethered and secreted proteins, which represent the cell-surface repertoire of parasites and their host cells. We use these large libraries of proteins in serological studies to determine parasite targets of protective host antibody response, but also in AVEXIS protein:protein interaction studies to identify host:parasite receptor:ligand pairs, which we then analyse functionally. Our current research focuses on the mechanisms of host:parasite immune regulation during Schistosoma mansoni infection with the aim of shedding light on new vaccine candidates against schistosomiasis, and providing additional tools in the control of allergic and auto-immune responses.