Colin Sutherland BSc PhD MPH

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Background

Colin joined the School in January 1998 to work with Professor Geoffrey Targett on the adhesion of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes. After securing Wellcome Trust funding, Colin coordinated a series of clinical trials which measured the effect of antimalarial combination therapy on transmission of P. falciparum. This work was carried out in Farafenni, The Gambia from 2000 to 2002 . As result of this field work, Colin developed a keen interest in drug resistance which led to important collaborative projects within the Gates Malaria Partnership. He is now supported by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) as Senior Lecturer attached to the Malaria Reference Laboratory, LSHTM, and as Clinical Scientist in the Department of Clinical Parasitology at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

A highlight of recent work in Colin's HPA-supported role has been demonstrating that the human malaria parasite Plasmodium ovale exists as two separate species, which we have named P. ovale curtisi and P. ovale wallikeri (see publication list). 

Teaching

Colin contributes lectures, seminars and practical classes for students studying for the Immunology of infectious Diseases (IID), Control of Infectious Diseases (CID) and Molecular Biology of infectious Diseases (MBID) MSc degrees, and for the DTM&H. He has also supervised a large number of MSc summer research projects in the laboratory.

Colin's lab group has been involved in training researchers from a number of malaria endemic countries in techniques for molecular genotyping of malaria parasites. Recent trainees and students have hailed from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, The Philippines, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Gambia and elsewhere, and include scientists, clinicians, doctoral students and research assistants.

Research

Colin's research falls into 3 main areas: Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte biology, malaria drug resistance and molecular diagnostics for malaria infections. The following projects are currently active in the lab:

1) The effects of combination therapy on post-treatment transmission and carriage of drug resistance genes in P. falciparum.

Funding from the Wellcome Trust received in 2000 supported a series of 3 randomised controlled trials of anti-malarial therapy in Farafenni, The Gambia. Molecular genotyping of resistance-associated parasite genes in these and other trials was supported by the Gates Malaria Partnership with co-investigators Neal Alexander, Rachel Hallett, Rosalynn Ord, Ali Alloueche and Mark Rowland. New studies with Rachel and Teun Bousema are now planned in east Africa for 2009.

2) New molecular tools for diagnosis of parasitic infections

The Health Protection Agency is supporting the development of new DNA amplification assays both in the Malaria Reference Laboratory at LSHTM, with Dr Debbie Nolder and Dr Martina Burke, and at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD) with Prof. Peter Chiodini.New real-time quantitative PCR assays for Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax have been developed and have entered routine diagnostic use. Tests for P. ovale, P. malariae and P. knowlesi have been developed are being validated. These quantitative assays are also being used to monitor parasite clearance times in patients under treatment in HTD.

In addition, new applications of LAMP technology for malaria diagnosis are being developed jointly between LSHTM and the Clinical Parasitology Dept at HTD with support from FIND, Geneva. We are also developing new molecular diagnostic tests to distinguish Leishmania species, with a grant from the Heptagon fund of the University of London.

3) Identification of target surface antigens in P. falciparum gametocytes.

This work has been carried out by doctoral students Sarah Sharp (PhD completed October 2007) and Dr Maha Saeed following on from Colin's earlier EU-funded work with Dr Louisa McRobert. Sarah has identified gametocyte-expressed members of the multi-gene families stevor and var that may play a role in sexual-stage adhesion, whereas Maha has demonstrated that plasma antibodies from some Gambian children with a recent history of gametocyte carriage recognise the surface of cultured gametocyte-infected erythrocytes.

4) Impact of combination therapy on transmission of resistant malaria parasites

Under the direction of Rachel Hallett,we are examining the impact of new comnbination antimalarials, particualrly those containing artemisinin compounds, on the development of resistance in malaria parasites. THeough the EU-funded MALACTRES consortium we are linked into a number of trials and studies throughout Africa in which ACTs will be tested. We are linking both efficacy and transmssion outcomes to polymorphic markers in candidate genes.

Chiara Andolina, our entomologist, is involved in studies of the impact of drugs on transmission of malaria parasites to Anopheles mosquitoes.

5) Evaluation of the malaria vaccine RTS,S by parasite genotyping

A large Phase IIb trial of the vaccine RTS,S among children under 5 in Manhica, Mozambique, demonstrated significant albeit partial protection against clinical malaria attacks. In a GMP-supported collaboration with CISM Mozambique, the University of Barcelona, GSK Biologicals and the Malaria Vaccine Initiative Colin worked with Dr David Conway, Dr Sonia Enosse and Dr Carlota Dobano to determine the genotype of parasite isolates collected during follow-up of this important vaccine trial, and this was published in 2006.Genotyping analysis for another recent trial of RTS,S among adult Kenyan males has recently been completed in collaboration with Sammy Anyona and Dr John Waitumbi in Kisumu, Kenya. These data have been analysed and will shortly be submitted for publication.

6) Genetic diversity of P. falciparum and P. vivax from the Venezuelan Amazon.

The doctoral work of Rosalynn Ord, in collaboration with Dr Adriana Tami and Dr Spencer Polley, has provided a novel comparison of genetic diversity between P. falciparum and P. vivax parasites circulating among the same group of human hosts in the Venezuelan Amazon. New results in 2007 confirm that these two sympatric parasite populations differ significantly in their population structure, with P. vivax showing remarkable genetic diversity.

7) Drug resistant parasites in malaria patients treated at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD), London.

In his role as Clinical Scientist at HTD, Colin is collating and analysing DNA samples from malaria patients who have returned to or visited the UK from malaria-endemic countries. Markers of resistance to a variety of antimalarial drugs, including atovaquone-proguanil, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, mefloquine and chloroquine are being evaluated using a combination of direct sequencing and probe-based qPCR assays in real-time. Using this apporach, we have recently identified novel resistance-associated alleles of the important anti-folate resistance marker pfdhps.

Selected publications

• Sutherland, C.J.; Tanomsing, N.; Nolder, D.; Oguike, M.; Jennison, C.; Pukrittayakamee, S.; Dolecek, C.; Hien, T.T.; do Ros?rio, V.E.; Arez, A.P.; Pinto, J.; Michon, P.; Escalante, A.A.; Nosten, F.; Burke, M.; Lee, R.; Blaze, M.; Otto, T.D.; Barnwell, J.W.; Pain, A.; Williams, J.; White, N.J.; Day, N.P.; Snounou, G.; Lockhart, P.J.; Chiodini, P.L.; Imwong, M.; Polley, S.D.; Two Nonrecombining Sympatric Forms of the Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium ovale Occur Globally. J Infect Dis, 2010; 201(10):1544-50
• Sutherland, C.J.; Ord, R.; Dunyo, S.; Jawara, M.; Drakeley, C.J.; Alexander, N.; Coleman, R.; Pinder, M.; Walraven, G.; Targett, G.A.; Reduction of Malaria Transmission to Anopheles Mosquitoes with a Six-Dose Regimen of Co-Artemether. PLoS Med, 2005; 2(4):e92
• Meerman, L.; Ord, R.; Bousema, J. T.; van Niekerk, M.; Osman, E.; Hallett, R.; Pinder, M.; Walraven, G.; Sutherland, C. J. Carriage of chloroquine-resistant parasites and delay of effective treatment increase the risk of severe malaria in Gambian children Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2005; 192(9):1651-1657
• Saeed, M.; Roeffen, W.; Alexander, N.; Drakeley, C.J.; Targett, G.A.; Sutherland, C.J.; Plasmodium falciparum antigens on the surface of the gametocyte-infected erythrocyte. PLoS ONE, 2008; 3(5):e2280
• Humphreys, G.S.; Merinopoulos, I.; Ahmed, J.; Whitty, C.J.; Mutabingwa, T.K.; Sutherland, C.J.; Hallett, R.L.; Amodiaquine and Artemether-Lumefantrine Select Distinct Alleles of the Plasmodium falciparum mdr1 Gene in Tanzanian Children Treated for Uncomplicated Malaria. Antimicrob Agents Chemother, 2007; 51(3):991-7
• Gadalla, N.B.; Elzaki, S.E.; Mukhtar, E.; Warhurst, D.C.; El-Sayed, B.; Sutherland, C.J.; Dynamics of pfcrt alleles CVMNK and CVIET in chloroquine-treated Sudanese patients infected with Plasmodium falciparum. Malar J, 2010; 9:74
• Sutherland, C.J.; Fifer, H.; Pearce, R.J.; Bin Reza, F.; Nicholas, M.; Haustein, T.; Njimgye-Tekumafor, N.E.; Doherty, J.F.; Gothard, P.; Polley, S.D.; Chiodini, P.L.; Novel pfdhps haplotypes among imported cases of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the UK. Antimicrob Agents Chemother, 2009; 53(8):3405-10
• Diallo, D.A.; Sutherland, C.; Nebie, I.; Konate, A.T.; Ord, R.; Ilboudo-Sanogo, E.; Greenwood, B.M.; Cousens, S.N.; Children in Burkina Faso who are protected by insecticide-treated materials are able to clear drug-resistant parasites better than unprotected children. J Infect Dis, 2007; 196(1):138-44

Full publications listing (since 2001)