What is your role at LSHTM?
I’m a Research Fellow in Rob Moon’s lab. I spend my time culturing Plasmodium falciparum and P. knowlesi parasites in the laboratory, doing lots of molecular genetics and cell biology on them.

Tell us a bit about the project you are currently working on:
For the last four and a half years I’ve been working on my Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship project, investigating the role of the AMA1 cytoplasmic domain and trying to identify putative AMA1 interacting proteins. I have now moved onto Rob’s new Wellcome Discovery award looking at the basic biology of P. knowlesi gametocytes.

When and how did you start working on malaria?
I had worked on Trypanosomes previously and found protist parasites interesting. I was looking to work on another parasite and was interested in the ancient and widespread disease of malaria. In 2013 I started my PhD on Plasmodium blood-stage egress with Mike Blackman at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, which merged into the Francis Crick Institute.

Where are you from?
I was born in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, grew up for much of my childhood in the Philippines and then moved back to the UK, near Amersham, for the last few years of school.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I think I imagined being all sorts of things growing up, with the help of the Early Learning Centre. After a while I had an affinity for the sciences and I was drawn to biology due to the majesty of evolutionary theory and the adaptability of life, so pursued that.

What's your favourite place?
The austere beauty of the Greek Cycladic Islands makes me happy. The surrounding vistas of deep blue sky and deep blue sea you get, perched atop those tall rocky islands, are pretty special.

When I'm not working, I am...
Taking pictures with old film cameras. They’re very satisfying mechanical/tangible things in this digital age and holding a colour slide up to the light when you have developed it with old-fashioned chemistry is magic!

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
Hmmm, that’s a tough one. I could probably do with heeding lots of advice on lots of matters. “Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts”, perhaps? I remember Mike telling me that one; I think it came from Einstein originally. I suppose it could be applied to science and life more generally.