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Dr William Stone

BSc MSc PhD

Assistant Professor

Room
380

LSHTM
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT
United Kingdom

I completed my MSc in Medical Parasitology at LSHTM in 2011. While writing up my summer project for publication, I travelled to Kenya to conduct serological and molecular analyses for a large study which aimed to identify micro-geographical hotspots of malaria parasite transmission. I then moved to the Netherlands to start my PhD at Radboud University under PIs Teun Bousema and Robert Sauerwein. Between then and 2018 I also worked in California, Kenya, and London, focusing on the development of assays to detect and quantify transmission from humans to mosquitoes, measurement of the malaria infectious reservoir at the population level, and on transmission inhibiting drugs and naturally acquired antibody responses. Returning full time to LSHTM under PI Chris Drakeley, I collaborated with the Malaria Research & Training Center in Bamako, Mali testing the effects of low dose antimalarials as transmission blocking agents, for supplementing standard treatments. In 2019 I was awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship to continue my work investigating naturally acquired transmission blocking immunity, which focuses on samples collected in studies in Uganda and during controlled human malaria infections. I am currently working on projects in Burkina Faso, Uganda, Mali, and Ethiopia.

Affiliations

Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases
Department of Infection Biology

Centres

Malaria Centre

Teaching

I am a tutor on the 'Malaria: From Science to Policy and Practice' module, and I teach on the 'Immunology of Infectious Diseases' MSc course and the 'Immunology of Parasitic Infection' optional module.

Research

I work on the transmission of P. falciparum malaria parasites from humans to mosquitoes, encompassing diagnostic strategies, measurement of the infectious reservoir and the assessment of transmission-blocking drugs in randomised controlled trials. I am currently focused on investigating malaria transmission blocking immunity - which occurs naturally after exposure to the parasite, and forms the basis of transmission blocking vaccine development.

Research Area
Clinical trials
Diagnostics
Insects
Parasites
Public health
Vaccines
Disease control
Immunisation
Medicines
Randomised controlled trials
Discipline
Genomics
Immunoepidemiology
Epidemiology
Immunology
Microbiology
Molecular biology
Parasitology
Vector biology
Vaccinology
Disease and Health Conditions
Malaria
Country
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Ethiopia
Gambia
Kenya
Mali
Netherlands
Uganda
Region
Sub-Saharan Africa (all income levels)

Selected Publications

Higher gametocyte production and mosquito infectivity in chronic compared to incident Plasmodium falciparum infections.
Barry A; Bradley J; Stone W; Guelbeogo MW; Lanke K; Ouedraogo A; Soulama I; Nébié I; Serme SS; Grignard L
2021
Nature communications
No time to die: An in-depth analysis of James Bond's exposure to infectious agents.
Graumans W; Stone WJR; Bousema T
2021
Travel medicine and infectious disease
Naturally acquired immunity against immature Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes.
Dantzler KW; Ma S; Ngotho P; Stone WJR; Tao D; Rijpma S; De Niz M; Nilsson Bark SK; Jore MM; Raaijmakers TK
2019
SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE
Predicting the likelihood and intensity of mosquito infection from sex specific Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte density.
Bradley J; Stone W; Da DF; Morlais I; Dicko A; Cohuet A; Guelbeogo WM; Mahamar A; Nsango S; Soumaré HM
2018
eLife
Two-Faced Immunity? The Evidence for Antibody Enhancement of Malaria Transmission.
Stone W; Bousema T; Sauerwein R; Drakeley C
2018
Trends in parasitology
Publisher Correction: Unravelling the immune signature of Plasmodium falciparum transmission-reducing immunity.
Stone WJR; Campo JJ; Ouédraogo AL; Meerstein-Kessel L; Morlais I; Da D; Cohuet A; Nsango S; Sutherland CJ; van de Vegte-Bolmer M
2018
Nature communications
A Molecular Assay to Quantify Male and Female Plasmodium falciparum Gametocytes: Results From 2 Randomized Controlled Trials Using Primaquine for Gametocyte Clearance.
Stone W; Sawa P; Lanke K; Rijpma S; Oriango R; Nyaurah M; Osodo P; Osoti V; Mahamar A; Diawara H
2017
The Journal of infectious diseases
Naturally acquired immunity to sexual stage P. falciparum parasites.
Stone WJR; Dantzler KW; Nilsson SK; Drakeley CJ; Marti M; Bousema T; Rijpma SR
2016
Parasitology
Assessing the infectious reservoir of falciparum malaria: past and future.
Stone W; Gonçalves BP; Bousema T; Drakeley C
2015
Trends in parasitology
A scalable assessment of Plasmodium falciparum transmission in the standard membrane-feeding assay, using transgenic parasites expressing green fluorescent protein-luciferase.
Stone WJR; Churcher TS; Graumans W; van Gemert G-J; Vos MW; Lanke KHW; van de Vegte-Bolmer MG; Siebelink-Stoter R; Dechering KJ; Vaughan AM
2014
The Journal of infectious diseases
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