Dr Emma Briggs
MRC Career Development Award
I’m currently a Research Fellow in the Bioscience Institute, funded by an MRC Career Development Award. My research is focused on understanding cell cycle regulation in the eukaryotic parasites Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania species. These pathogens are spread between humans by insect vectors and cause the Neglected Tropical Diseases, Human African Trypanosomiasis and Leishmaniasis.
Having previously studied genetics at the University of Glasgow, I then remained at Glasgow and completed a PhD in Molecular Parasitology, focusing on the unique genome of Trypanosoma brucei and the complex antigenic variation process this extracellular parasite employs to evade the host immune system.
Funded by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship, I then continued working with T. brucei, developing wet lab and analysis approaches to apply single鈥慶ell transcriptomics to these parasites. During this time, I worked primarily at the University of Edinburgh, also spending some time at the University of Glasgow.
With this technology I was able to deconvolve the gene expression patterns that underpin the asynchronous differentiation events that these parasites undergo as they navigate the life cycle between mammal and insect vector.
With this approach, I was also able to resolve the cell cycle of these parasites, highlighting hundreds of genes with dynamic expression patterns. This led me to my interest in the fundamental regulation of the cell cycle in T. brucei and Leishmania, the focus of my lab group here at 缅北禁地. We aim to uncover and understand the molecular regulation of key cell cycle transitions, with the aim of both understanding cell cycle regulation in a divergent eukaryote and probing new routes to treatment.
Joining 缅北禁地 has allowed me to continue my parasitology research in the company of world leading cell cycle biologists spanning yeast biology, developmental biology and cancer sciences.
Being at 缅北禁地 has led to new collaborations, ideas, and—undoubtedly in the future—novel findings. I hope that the foundations myself and my group have begun building at 缅北禁地 will lead to exciting large鈥憇cale research projects into these parasites and new treatments, taking advantage of the unique combination of expert knowledge and facilities available here.