The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

A joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital

EDUCATION

Research Projects

Project: Genomic epidemiology and malaria surveillance

Day Group

The potential of the Plasmodium spp. genomics to improve the surveillance and control of malaria in endemic countries is a key focus of our research. This requires an interdisciplinary approach combining field, laboratory and computational approaches. Genomic epidemiology is underpinned by the disciplines of evolutionary genetics, ecology, microbiology, parasitology, immunology, genomics and epidemiology to solve the pressing public health problems of our time. From genomic data we have created genotyping methods to study variation in neutral markers, drug resistance markers, and antigen encoding loci to answer questions about malaria transmission across the globe.

Project site: Bio21 Institute

Contact project supervisor for further
information and application enquiries

Project Supervisor

Professor Karen Day

Project availability
PhD/MPhil
Master of Biomedical Science
Honours

Day Group

karen.day@unimelb.edu.au

8 vacancies

Themes
Bacterial and Parasitic Infections
Cross Cutting Disciplines
Computational Science and Genomics
Global Health
Public Health

Professor Karen Day runs a multidisciplinary malaria research group that utilises molecular epidemiology to study the role that variation in human, parasite, and vector genomes plays in modulating transmission dynamics of Plasmodium spp. She is also interested in cell-to-cell communication in malaria parasites to alter population behaviour. She has a strong track record in interdisciplinary training of the next generation of infectious disease epidemiologists.