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David Smith

(PhD)

Job Title:
Research Fellow

Contact Number:
0131 4455 111

Address:
Moredun Research Institute, Pentland Science Park, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0PZ

Job Role

David is a Moredun Fellow and joined the Insitute in September 2019.

Biography

David gained his bachelor’s degree in Zoology in 2010 from Liverpool John Moores University, which is where his interests in parasitology initially began. Following this, David completed an MPhil at Newcastle University, in which his thesis focused on characterizing microbial communities associated with healthy, stressed and diseased tropical corals.

With an interest in understanding what makes particular organisms pathogenic, David undertook a PhD at Queen’s University Belfast under the supervision of Prof John Dalton. Here, he sought to understand molecules associated with parasite virulence in the helminth Fasciola hepatica and was successful in determining parasite protease inhibitors with novel and unexpected function.

It was during his PhD that David also became exposed to vaccine trials in livestock and gained a passion for developing novel therapeutic strategies. Following his PhD in 2017, David moved to the University of Michigan to take up a position as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof Vernon Carruthers Lab, whereby he worked on multiple basic and applied research projects centered on the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Here, he established cellular processes that are essential to the parasite’s ability to persist chronically within its mammalian host.

Furthermore, he developed an in vitro platform for screening compounds effective at killing chronic stage T. gondii, for which no drug currently exists, and worked as part of a collaborative project to develop reversible protease inhibitors that kill chronic-stage parasites and are able to reach difficult sites of infection (e.g. the brain).

 

Current Research

David’s major research interests are in understanding how parasites invade their host and persist long-term, and bridge both basic and applied science. More specifically, David is interested in understanding parasite invasion and persistence at a molecular level, with a view towards identifying novel vaccine and drug targets.

He is particularly keen to use and develop physiologically relevant in vitro models for exploring host-parasite biology. By applying genetic modification technology (such as CRISPR/Cas9), David plans to use these models as a platform for understanding parasite gene and protein function.

Selected Publications

Published Year: 2021
  • David Smith,
  • Daniel R. G. Price,
  • Alison Burrells,
  • Marc N. Faber,
  • Katie A. Hildersley,
  • Cosmin Chintoan-Uta,
  • Ambre F. Chapuis,
  • Mark Stevens,
  • Karen Stevenson,
  • Stewart T. G. Burgess,
  • Elisabeth A. Innes,
  • Alasdair J. Nisbet,
  • Tom N. McNeilly,
Read More
Published Year: 2021
  • David Smith,
  • Geetha Kannan,
  • Isabelle Coppens,
  • Fengrong Wang,
  • Hoa Mai Nguyen,
  • Aude Cerutti,
  • Einar B Olafsson,
  • Patrick A Rimple,
  • Tracey L Schultz,
  • Nayanna M Mercado Soto,
  • Manlio Di Cristina,
  • Sébastien Besteiro,
  • Vern B Carruthers,
Read More
Published Year: 2019
  • Innes, E.A.,
  • Hamilton, C.,
  • Garcia, J.L.,
  • Chryssafidis, A.,
  • Smith, D.,
Read More

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