Dr Virginia Muriel Howick

Postdoctoral Fellow

Alumni

This person is a member of Sanger Institute Alumni.

I am studying the genetic basis of genotype-by-genotype interactions between the Anopheles vector and the malaria parasite. Using a combination of transcriptomic and genomic data, I aim to identify how specific processes are altered by different vector-parasite combinations.

As an evolutionary biologist, I am generally interested in how individual organisms deal with environmental challenges and perturbations while balancing basic physiological demands. I am interested in the underlying genes and processes that influence these tradeoffs and how selection is acting on these systems, particularly those that relate to host-parasite and vector-parasite interactions. For my Ph.D., I used Drosophila melanogaster as a model system to understand the genetic architecture in immune defence against a bacterial pathogen as resistance and tolerance, and how selection is acting on the innate immune response.

My timeline

• Started as a Postdoctoral Fellow at WTSI

• Awarded PhD in Entomology from Cornell University

• Started graduate school at Cornell University

• Junior Scientist in Heimpel Lab at the University of Minnesota

• B.S. in Genetics and Microbiology from the University of Minnesota

• Research assistant in Heimpel Lab at the University of Minnesota