SysGen Seminar – Alyssa Barry – 2nd June, 2017

Alyssa Barry

Walter & Eliza Hall Institute

Friday 2nd June
12-1pm
Woodruff Theatre, Level 1, Building 184 (Old Microbiology), The University of Melbourne

Harnessing parasite genomic diversity for the control and elimination of malaria

Abstract
Malaria remains a major burden globally with 214 million clinical cases and 438,000 deaths in 2015. A renewed commitment to controlling malaria has resulted in a 37% decline of malaria incidence since 2000 and a call for global malaria eradication. However, countries face several challenges such as increasingly clustered infections and the importation of infections from other endemic areas, increasing multidrug resistance and the lack of a broadly effective vaccine. This presentation will focus on how understanding parasite genomic diversity can address these challenges, and deliver new tools for malaria control and elimination.

Bio
Associate Professor Alyssa Barry is a Laboratory Head in the Population Health and Immunity Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. She has previously held postdoctoral positions at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, New York University School of Medicine and the University of Oxford. Research in the Barry Lab is focused on the genomic diversity of malaria parasites, providing insights into transmission dynamics, drug resistance, antigenic diversity and host immunity. A/Prof Barry is an Innovation Fellow of the Victorian Endowment for Science Knowledge and Innovation (veski), and a member of the Asia-Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN), the Malaria Genetic Epidemiology Network (MalariaGEN) and the NIH-funded International Centres for Excellence in Malaria Research (ICEMR).

Enquiries: Andrew Siebel (asiebel@unimelb.edu.au)