News

List of recent and older news of the Matthews lab.

October 2024 - Guy's paper accepted in 'Nature Communications'

Guy's work on how trypanosome monomorphism arises in field isolates and under laboratory selection is accepted in 'Nature Communications'. The work analysed the genomes of many field isolates looking for features characteristic of lineages that had reduced their capacity for stumpy formation as they adapted to non-tsetse transmission. Complementary selection in the laboratory further identified early changes in the expression of key RNA regulators controlling quorum sensing. In combination the work provided a model for the trajectory of adaptation to non tsetse transmission - a key development in the field as tsetse control, farming practices and livestock migration put pressure on trypanosome transmission by tsetse flies. 

October 2024- Stephen awarded 'best talk' prize at KMCB 2024

Stephen Larcombe is awarded 'best talk' prize at the 2024 KMCB meeting at Woods Hole, USA. Stephen presented the work of the 'COBALT' Wellcome Collaborative award project entitled 'Challenging African trypanosome antigenic variation paradigms using natural systems'.

October 2023 - Stephen and Emma's paper in PNAS

Stephen and Emma's paper, titled "The developmental hierarchy and scarcity of replicative slender trypanosomes in blood challenges their role in infection maintenance", has been published in PNAS.

Read Stephen and Emma's paper (PNAS).

Article explainer - Stephen and Emma's paper (Kudos).

May 2023 - BBSRC collaborative project

BBSRC fund a £880k collaborative project with Liam Morrison and Frank Venter on the risk of trypanosome coinfections in Africa.

Liam Morrison's profile (ed.ac.uk).

September 2022 - Frank wins Best Poster at Parafrap EMBO

Frank wins best poster at the Parafrap EMBO meeting at Les Embiez.

Parafrap EMBO workshop details (EMBO).

August 2022 - Keith wins Alice and C.C. Wang prize

Keith won the Alice and C. C. Wang prize for molecular parasitology from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).

"Matthews’ career-long search for truth" - interview with Keith after winning the award (ASBMB).

American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology website (ASBMB).

June 2022 - Mabel wins the Ker Memorial Prize

Mabel wins the Ker Memorial prize. Her paper, titled "Extracellular release of two peptidases dominates generation of the trypanosome quorum-sensing signal", is now published in Nature communications.

View Mabel's paper - Extracellular release of two peptidases dominates generation of the trypanosome quorum-sensing signal (Nature).

News article on the 2022 Ker Memorial Prize (Edinburgh Infectious Diseases).

August 2021 - Emma's work accepted in Nature communications

Emma's scRNA analysis of the slender-stumpy transition (with Richard McCulloch, Thomas Otto and Federico Rojas) accepted in Nature Communications.

Richard McCulloch's profile (University of Glasgow School of Infection & Immunity).

Thomas Otto's profile (University of Glasgow School of Infection & Immunity).

August 2021 - Desi and Robbie's paper in Genome Research

Desi and Robbie's paper, with Robin Allshire, titled "A systematic analysis of Trypanosoma brucei chromatin factors identifies novel protein interaction networks associated with sites of transcription initiation and termination", has been accepted in Genome Research.

Read Desi and Robbie's full article (Genome Research)

Robin Allshire's profile (allshirelab.com)

July 2021 - Guy's paper published in Microbial Genomics

Guy's paper on monomorphism, trypanosome nomenclature and disease features was published in Microbial Genomics.

Read Guy's paper - "Monomorphic Trypanozoon: towards reconciling phylogeny and pathologies" (Microbiology Society).

January 2021 - £2.5M Investigator Award

The Wellcome Trust has granted us the £2.5M Investigator award to support our work on trypanosome quorum sensing.

Wellcome Trust website (wellcome.org).

August 2020 - Our sheep vaccination technology covered in news article

Our sheep vaccination technology has been covered in a news article by the Edinburgh Infectious Diseases. 

Read the article - "Breakthrough vaccine vehicle for sheep and goats using trypanosomes" (Edinburgh Infectious Diseases).

April 2020 - Keith is a Fellow of the Royal Society

March 2020 - Mathieu's paper in eLife

Mathieu's paper, titled "An atypical DYRK kinase connects quorum-sensing with posttranscriptional gene regulation in Trypanosoma brucei" was accepted in eLife.

Read Mathiew's article - "An atypical DYRK kinase connects quorum-sensing with posttranscriptional gene regulation in Trypanosoma brucei" (eLife).

October 2019 - Kirsty's paper in PNAS

Kirsty's paper, titled "Developmental competence and antigen switch frequency can be uncoupled in Trypanosoma brucei " has been accepted in PNAS

Read the article - Developmental competence and antigen switch frequency can be uncoupled in Trypanosoma brucei (PDF / 1697 KB).

June 2019 - Balazs' paper in Mbio

Balazs's paper on glycosome repositioning (with Derrick Robinson and Markus Engstler) accepted in Mbio.

Read article - Positional Dynamics and Glycosomal Recruitment of Developmental Regulators during Trypanosome Differentiation (PubMed).

November 2018 - Federico's paper in Cell

May 2018 - Keith elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Keith has been elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. 

News article on Keith's election as Fellow (University of Edinburgh School of Biological Sciences).

Academy of Medical Sciences website (acmedsci.ac.uk).

October 2017 - £7M award for TIBA programme

Our research group has been granted a £7M award for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Tackling Infections for the Benefit of Africa (TIBA) programme. 

Read more information on the TIBA programme from the official website (tiba-partnership.org).

May 2017 - Eleanor wins the 2017 Ker Memorial Prize

Eleanor has won the 2017 Ker memorial prize for the 'best PhD thesis on Infectious Diseases at the University of Edinburgh'.

March 2017 - Eva's paper in PLOS Pathogens

Well done Eva for her paper's acceptance in PLOS Pathogens!

November 2016 - The Royal Society Global Challenge Research Fund

Delighted to be awarded The Royal Society Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) grant on pathogen control in sheep in developing countries.

Information on the GCRF grant (royalsociety.org).

June 2016 - Our review in Nature Microbiology

Our review on Drug Resistance in Eukaryotic Microroganisms published in Nature Microbiology.

Read full article - Drug resistance in eukaryotic microorganisms (nature.com).

November 2015 - Keith wins Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Award

August 2015 - Our paper in J Cell Biology

March 2015 - Kirsty McWilliam will join us for a PhD

Delighted that Kirsty McWilliam will join us for a PhD from September.

December 2014 - Balazs wins BBSRC award

Balazs wins BBSRC 'Excellence with Impact' award in the University of Edinburgh School of Biological Sciences.

September 2014 - Lindsay wins prize at the SBS graduate symposium

Lindsay has won the Institute poster prize at the SBS graduate symposium.

April 2014 - Keith to become Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator

Keith is to become a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. 

Information on the Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards (wellcome.org).

March 2014 - Gratitude for support to Keith with the SBS Firewalk

Thank you to everyone who supported Keith for the SBS Firewalk. The team raised £4000 to assist Undergraduate bursaries.

University of Edinburgh article on the charity firewalking (ed.ac.uk).

January 2014 - Paula's work accepted in Eukaryotic Cell

Paula's HTS screen for stumpy inducers has been accepted in Eukaryotic Cell.

November 2013 - Our paper on stumpy formation in Nature

August 2013 - Balazs and Irene's paper in PLos Pathogens

Balazs and Irene's paper (with Naomi Dyer and Alvaro Acosta-Serrano) has been accepted to PLoS Pathogens.

February 2013 - Stephanie's paper in J Cell Science

Stephanie's paper (with Peter Simmonds) has been accepted to J Cell Science.

Peter Simmonds' profile on the Nuffield Department of Medicine webpage (ndm.ox.ac.uk).

May 2012 - Our review in Nature Reviews Microbiology

Paula, Balazs, Nick and Keith's review has been published in Nature Reviews Microbiology.

Read article - Trypanosomal immune evasion, chronicity and transmission: an elegant balancing act (Nature Reviews Microbiology).

February 2012 - Tom Little's commentary in Nature Medicine

Tom Little's commentary, titled "Harnessing evolutionary biology to combat infectious disease" has been published in Nature Medicine.

Read the article - Harnessing evolutionary biology to combat infectious disease (Nature).

November 2011 - Pegine and Paul's paper in Nucleic Acids Research

October 2011 - Adam's paper published in PLoS Pathogens and highlighted in media

Adam's paper was published in PLoS Pathogens. His work has been highlighted by the BBSRC Food Security programme, the Wellcome Trust blog and the University of Edinburgh School of Biology BioPOD podcast.

Read the full article - Targeting Cattle-Borne Zoonoses and Cattle Pathogens Using a Novel Trypanosomatid-Based Delivery System (PLoS).

Listen to the February 2012 episode of BioPOD on Adam and Keith's work in cattle vaccination (Media Hopper).

April 2011 - Paula's paper in Cell Host Microbe

Paula's paper was published in (and featured on the cover of) Cell Host and Microbe.

Read full article - Transmission Stages Dominate Trypanosome Within-Host Dynamics during Chronic Infections (Science Direct).

March 2011 - Keith's review published in Science

Keith's review on Vector Borne Parasites has been published in Science.

Read full article - Controlling and Coordinating Development in Vector-Transmitted Parasites (Science).

September 2010 - Stephanie wins Best Poster at the University of Edinburgh graduate symposium

Stephanie has won the "School of Biological Sciences Best Poster" prize at the University of Edinburgh graduate symposium.

May 2010 - Balazs and Irene's paper in Genes and Development

May 2009 - Sam's paper in Nature

June 2008 - Balazs wins prize at the Gordon Research Conference

Balazs wins the "Cellular Microbiology" Prize for best poster at the Gordon Research Conference on Host-Parasite Interactions 2008.

Information on the conference - 2008 Gordon Research Conference (grc.org).

April 2008 - Keith wins The Wright Medal

Keith Matthews has been awarded the C.A. Wright Memorial medal. The award has been given annually since 1985 to reward researchers with exceptional contributions to the discipline of parasitology.

Information on the award - C.A. Wright Memorial Medal (British Society for Parasitology).

November 2006 - Sleeping sickness article

Our work on sleeping sickness has been covered by in an article by the University of Edinburgh.

Read article - Study Offers Hope in Sleeping Sickness Battle (ed.ac.uk).