Our Team

Jo is a Professor of Zoology and Parasitology in the Department of Life Sciences at Aberystwyth University. Her research focuses on the use of proteomic and molecular technologies to explore host- parasite interactions in a wide variety of host-parasite systems including blood-sucking insects and nematodes and trematodes of medical and veterinary importance. Her twenty-five-year passion for parasites and research-led teaching extends to STEM education and outreach through leadership of programmes to increase science capital at all stages of learners' journeys. This ranges from schools' engagement (£8.2M Trio Sci Cymru project and SusNet Wales) to developing the next generation of zoonotic disease scientists (Research Culture and Wellbeing lead of the £7.2 M OneZoo Centre for Doctoral Training). She is the Faculty Associate Dean for Learning, Teaching and Student Experience, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE), Fellow of the Royal Society for Biology and the current President of the British Society for Parasitology.      

Sian 's  research interest is in infectious disease epidemiology, public health and development in low-income countries. The primary aim of her research is the development and evaluation of disease control strategies to improve health in resource-constrained environments, with a specific focus on malaria. Sian has a particular interest in the epidemiology and control of malaria in school-aged children in sub-Saharan Africa, and the consequences of asymptomatic malaria infection on anaemia, cognition and education. She also has a keen interest in access to medicines and the quality of care, and public health interventions to improve the treatment of malaria and other childhood infections by community health workers, private clinics and drug shops. She has led numerous intervention studies in sub-Saharan Africa, including randomised controlled trials to evaluate the impact of (i) malaria control in schools; (ii) seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) and nutritional interventions in pre-school children; (iii) perennial malaria chemoprevention (PMC) in early childhood; (iv) malaria prevention during pregnancy; (v) use of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) by CHWs and drug shop vendors; and (vi) integrated community case management (iCCM). She has a strong commitment to interdisciplinary research, and the power of bringing insights and methods from multiple disciplines to work together to understand and search for solutions to pressing public health challenges. Sian is the LSHTM Programme Director of the MSc One Health, and LSHTM Co-Director of the OneZoo Centre for Doctoral Training, a multi-university PhD programme to address the environmental drivers of zoonoses. From 2017 to 2021 she was Co-Director of the LSHTM Malaria Centre - a multidisciplinary cross-faculty network of over 200 malaria researchers at LSHTM.      

Rob runs a research group at LSHTM using molecular biology and parasite genetics tools to study malaria parasites. He primarily works with the malaria parasite Plasmodium knowlesi cultured in human red blood cells, a parasite which infects macaques in SE Asia and is a common cause of malaria in people in this region. Rob undertook his PhD in Molecular Parasitology at Imperial College London and my postdoc working at the Francis Crick Institute (formerly National Institute for Medical Research). During this time he developed new tools and techniques to study rodent malaria parasites and two species of human malaria parasite (P. falciparum and P. knowlesi). His main focus during this work has been addressing mechanisms by which the parasites move into and invade host cells and tissues in both mosquito and human hosts. This has helped to determine the role of proteins involved in cell signalling, molecular motors and host cell recognition and binding. He moved to the LSHTM in 2015 to establish a new group supported by a Medical Research Council Career Development Award and since this time have built on the P. knowlesi research niche to create cutting edge tools for genome-editing, and applied them to study the biology of invasion as well as a host of applied tools for vaccine, drug and diagnostic development. I currently hold two Wellcome Trust Discovery Awards to study P. knowlesi invasion and transmission, as well as being a member of the OptiViVax consortium to develop and optimise multistage vaccines against P. vivax.  

Prior to this role, Beth gained her PhD in Biomedical sciences from Cardiff University where she discovered a novel mechanism underpinning how our lungs sense and respond to the often polluted world around us and how we can target this mechanism with a new treatment for a range of lung diseases. Alongside her role as the manager of OneZoo, she is an active post-doc in Prof Cable's lab, leveraging her PhD findings to better understand the mechanisms behind environmental drivers of infectious diseases in different ecosystems.

Elis is an Infectious Disease Researcher and more specifically  an Aquatic Parasitologist. Elis completed her PhD on “Keeping things under control; Diagnostic tools, control strategies and treatments of aquatic infectious diseases in freshwater fish” in order to promote efficient and effective ways to boost productivity in aquaculture. With aquaculture being the fastest growing, food producing sector being able to provide solutions and minimize losses feels very rewarding. She is currently working for a collaborative, interdisciplinary Centre for Doctoral Training – One Health for One Environment: an A – Z Approach for Tackling Zoonosis (‘OneZoo’), aiming to equip the next generation of world – leading scientists with the skills and insight necessary to tackle current and future zoonotic threats. Alongside providing guidance and support for the OneZoo CDT, as a specialist on infectious disease, she is also conducting research on drivers of and solutions for aquatic infections.