Dr Mojca Kristan
BSc MSc PhD
Assistant Professor
of Medical Entomology
Mojca Kristan studied Biology (BSc) at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and obtained an MSc in the Biology and Control of Disease Vectors at LSHTM in 2001. After her Masters she worked at the School as an entomology research technician as part of the Gates Malaria Partnership program. She was involved in work on malaria transmission and in the research within the Highland Malaria Project (HIMAL) on malaria epidemic early warning and detection systems in the highlands of Kenya and Uganda.
She has re-joined the School in 2012 as a Research Fellow, working on a collaborative project with Malaria Consortium, to study the impact of various control measures on malaria transmission from the perspective of vector-parasite interactions. Mojca joined Dr Thomas Walker's group after submitting her PhD to work on the use of FTA cards for detection of sporozoites during sugar feeding of mosquitoes. She then worked with Dr Walker and Dr Matt Rogers on the use of FTA cards for detection of Leishmania parasites in infective phlebotomine sand flies, with a potential to develop a simple and effective tool for monitoring of leishmaniasis transmission in the field. Mojca is currently working on the SPEAK India project with Prof Mary Cameron and Prof Susana Campino; on the RAFT Research Programme Consortium lead by Prof Sian Clarke and Prof Jo Lines; and as a member of the Human Malaria Transmission Facility led by Prof Colin Sutherland. She continues to work on vector control and surveillance, malaria transmission, leishmaniasis, ticks and parasite-vector interactions.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Mojca is a co-organiser of the Malaria: from Science to Policy and Practice study module (3195). She provides teaching support during various entomology practicals and student projects, and lectures on Vector Sampling, Identification & Incrimination and Vector Biology & Vector - Parasite Interactions modules. She is a tutor on the MSc Medical Entomology for Disease Control Control and MSc Medical Parasitology degree courses.
Research
Mojca's research interests include studies of malaria vectors in Africa, vector-parasite interactions, and evaluating the impact of insecticide resistance on malaria transmission and effectiveness of vector control. She is especially interested in the impact of vector control interventions on parasite-vector interactions, and in finding new tools for vector incrimination and monitoring of disease transmission in vectors.
She worked with Dr Colin Sutherland's group on the Plasmodium ovale project. In 2016, the team succeeded in producing P. ovale spp sporozoites and have used these to infect cultured hepatocytes. Together with Dr Michael Delves and Dr Christiaan van Ooij she successfully re-established P. falciparum transmission at LSHTM and they continue to work on various projects under the remit of the Human Malaria Transmission Facility.
After working with Dr Thomas Walker on vector incrimination and malaria sporozoite detection in mosquitoes, she worked with Dr Walker and Dr Matt Rogers on detection of Leishmania parasites in infective phlebotomine sand flies.
In 2023, Mojca continues to work on vector control, malaria transmission, parasite-vector interactions, and xenomonitoring, focusing on malaria and leishmaniasis. She is currently involved in the SPEAK India project, RAFT RPC and Human Malaria Transmission Facility. Together with Prof Susana Campino, Prof Taane Clark and colleagues from UKHSA they have just started work on a new tick project.
Mojca's research output can be viewed on google scholar (https://bit.ly/2Jl8gWj).
