Professor David Conway BSc PhD

Professor of Biology

David runs a research group conducting population genetic, immunological and epidemiological studies of malaria parasites. He was recently Head of the Malaria Research Programme at the MRC Laboratories in The Gambia, and works closely with colleagues in other countries, including Kenya and Malaysia. Earlier in his career, he worked on other infectious diseases including trachoma and strongyloidiasis. He has published 130 peer-reviewed research articles.

 

Affiliation

Teaching

David developed an MSc Study Unit entitled 'Genetics of Pathogens and Vectors' and ran this for 9 years, and has also taught on the Study Units 'Genetic Epidemiology', and 'Immunology of Parasitic Infections', and on the Distance Learning module on Malaria. He has taught externally at UCL and on two BBSRC residential Summer Schools. He has supervised MSc research projects at LSHTM, and supervised BSc projects of students from Imperial College, UCL, and Guy's Hospital. He currently supervises PhD students, and has previously supervised 7 PhDs at LSHTM and co-supervised 3 registered elsewhere. 

 

Research

David leads a research group at LSHTM with a focus on malaria, particularly: (i) the effects of natural selection on parasite antigens that are the targets of protective immune responses, (ii) naturally acquired immune responses and their relevance to protection, (iii) the effects of different epidemiological situations on parasite population genetic structures, (iv) erythrocyte invasion phenotypes of merozoites.

His research is currently funded by an MRC Grant on ‘Malaria parasite population structure and adaptation on the edge of endemic distribution in Africa’, and a Royal Society-Leverhulme Trust award with Dr Gordon Awandare on 'Alternative molecular mechanisms for erythrocyte invasion by Plasmodium falciparum in Ghana'. He has previously held 13 other research grants at LSHTM (8 from the Wellcome Trust, 3 from the MRC, and 2 from the EU).

Until 2010 he was Head of the Malaria Research Programme at the MRC Laboratories in The Gambia, where he led work supported by the MRC and several other funders, and elsewhere collaborates on studies of knowlesi malaria (with Prof Balbir Singh in Malaysia) and immunoepidemiology (with Prof Kevin Marsh in Kenya).

Research areas

  • Vaccines

Disciplines

  • Epidemiology
  • Genetics
  • Genomics
  • Immunology
  • Parasitology

Disease and Health Conditions

  • Infectious disease
  • Malaria
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