News

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. 

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'.

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).

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).

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

Parafrap EMBO workshop details (EMBO).

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).

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).

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).

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)

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).

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

Wellcome Trust website (wellcome.org).

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).

Keith has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society (2020).

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

The Royal Society website (royalsociety.org).

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).

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).

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).

Federico's paper on trypanosome quorum sensing was published in Cell.

Read Federico's paper - Oligopeptide Signaling through TbGPR89 Drives Trypanosome Quorum Sensing (ScienceDirect).

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).

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).

Our collaborative group received £2M from the Wellcome Trust to study immune evasion by livestock.

Read an article on our study of immune evasion by livestock - "Bid to tackle widespread cattle disease may aid African farmers" (University of Edinburgh School of Biological Sciences).

More information on the Collaborative Awards in Science fund by the Wellcome Trust (wellcome.org).

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

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

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).

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

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

Keith has won the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur mid career international award in biomedical research.

Read the press release accompanying the 4th Edition of the Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards (Pasteur).

Watch the video on Keith's research by the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur (YouTube).

August 2015 - Our paper, with Mick Urbaniak and Mike Ferguson, was accepted in J Cell Biology.

Mick Urbaniak's profile on the Lancaster University website (research.lancs.ac.uk).

Mike Ferguson's profile on the University of Dundee website (dundee.ac.uk).

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

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

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

Keith is to become a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. 

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

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).

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

Our paper on stumpy formation has been published in Nature.

Read full article - Genome-wide dissection of the quorum sensing signalling pathway in Trypanosoma brucei (Nature).

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

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).

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).

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).

Pegine and Paul's paper has been accepted to Nucleic Acids Research.

Read full article - The post-transcriptional trans-acting regulator, TbZFP3, co-ordinates transmission-stage enriched mRNAs in Trypanosoma brucei (Oxford Journals).

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).

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).

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

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

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

Balazs and Irene's paper has been accepted to Genes and Development.

Read full article - A novel phosphatase cascade regulates differentiation in Trypanosoma brucei via a glycosomal signaling pathway (PubMed).

Sam's paper has been published in Nature.

Full article - A surface transporter family conveys the trypanosome differentiation signal (PubMed).

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).

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).

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).