Author Archives: Sam Alsford

BSP Meeting Cambridge 2014

6-9th April was spent at the University of Cambridge attending the British Society for Parasitology annual meeting, including the Tryp-Leish symposium. Thanks to Mark Field (and colleagues) for organising a great meeting – his final act in Cambridge before packing … Continue reading

Posted in Conference | Comments Off on BSP Meeting Cambridge 2014

The Zombie Apocalypse!

Don’t panic, the zombies aren’t here yet, just a great way to get year 7 students interested in infection biology! University College School in Hampstead ran a themed science week for year 7 (11-12 year olds) entitled, ‘Zombie Apocalypse’. Professor John … Continue reading

Post-doctoral Research Fellow position available

A belated update: Dr Rachel Currier joined the lab on August 19th to work on the project outlined below. Rachel has a diverse background in molecular parasitology and snake venom biology, including high-throughput approaches, gained during MSc and PhD study … Continue reading

Posted in Opportunity | Comments Off on Post-doctoral Research Fellow position available

Opinion piece published in Trends in Parasitology…

Receptor mediated endocytosis for drug delivery in African trypanosomes: fulfilling Paul Ehrlich’s vision of chemotherapy (featured on the front cover of the May 2013 edition of Trends in Parasitology) A lot of time is spent identifying candidate drug targets and … Continue reading

Posted in Publication | Comments Off on Opinion piece published in Trends in Parasitology…

Speaking at KMCB meeting, Woods Hole MA, April 2013

The 5th Kinetoplastid Molecular Cell Biology meeting in Woods Hole MA kicks off on the 21st April, and I’m going to be speaking about some of the findings from our latest RNAi library screen. Inhibition of Trypanosoma brucei cathepsin-L increases sensitivity … Continue reading

Posted in Conference | Comments Off on Speaking at KMCB meeting, Woods Hole MA, April 2013

Review published in ‘Parasitology’…

Genetic dissection of drug resistance in trypanosomes | Full Text Part of a special edition of Parasitology, 140(12):  Genetic and genomic approaches to understanding drug resistance in parasites (October, 2013). Our understanding of the routes to drug resistance in trypanosomes, … Continue reading

Posted in Publication | Comments Off on Review published in ‘Parasitology’…

Peer review – a shifting deadline

Article peer review is an important part of our role as scientists, provided free of charge to scientific publishers, and a necessary (though not infallible) quality control on the published record. Clearly, the vast majority of editors and pubishers appreciate … Continue reading

MRC Funding

The MRC have recently agreed to fund a three year project in the lab investigating human serum efficacy determinants in Trypanosoma brucei, specifically looking at intracellular transport and activation of the lytic factor(s). This will employ a similar approach to … Continue reading

Why study African trypanosomes?

We’ve always needed to be able to justify our chosen area of research, and this is particularly the case in current times when funding is so hard to come by. This question is also pertinent given the recent successes achieved … Continue reading

Posted in Opinion | Comments Off on Why study African trypanosomes?

Invited talk at Nottingham University

Thanks to Bill Wickstead for inviting me to give a talk as part of the Nottingham University School of Biology seminar series (17/10/2012). I spoke about High throughput genetic analysis in Trypanosoma brucei – deciphering trypanosome biology; an all encompassing … Continue reading

Posted in Seminar | Comments Off on Invited talk at Nottingham University