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The CrickConnect team are delighted to be able to invite community members to join us for the institute's regular Crick Lecture.
Crick Lectures provide a broad insight into biomedical research from leading scientists. Not to be missed, the one-hour lectures are the event of the week for the Crick community to come together. The lectures aim to be accessible to scientists across different disciplines, while also offering something for the specialist.
This week we are delighted to invite Principal Group leader Mike Blackman to give the lecture "Malaria parasite egress from the host red blood cell: a tale of PKG, proteases and puzzles"
There will also be an opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends over refreshments after the Lecture from 17:00. If you are able to join us in person at the Crick please let us know at connect@crick.ac.uk so we can arrange access.
Mike Blackman
ike Blackman is a group leader in the Division of Parasitology.
He was born in Stockport near Manchester, and obtained a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Leeds .
He went on to work on interferon gamma in Alan Morris' group at the University of Warwick, where he obtained an MSc by research in 1985. Later that same year he took up a post as a research officer in the Medical Research Council (MRC)'s unit in The Gambia, West Africa, where he worked on production of human monoclonal antibodies and the role of antibodies in protection against malaria. It was here that he developed his interest in malaria and, in particular, the mechanistic basis of host cell invasion by the malaria parasite.
Mike returned to the UK in 1988 to study for a PhD in Tony Holder's lab at the MRC's National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR; now part of the Francis Crick Institute). Following this he stayed at NIMR, taking up a career track appointment and then being awarded tenure in 2000. He also holds a position as Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
His research interests focus on egress and host cell invasion by the malaria parasite and other apicomplexan parasites, with a particular focus on the proteolytic and kinase-mediated pathways that control these steps in the parasite lifecycle. Research in his lab makes extensive use of biochemical techniques and cell biology, with much use of heterologous expression systems and genetic modification by transfection of the human malaria parasites P. falciparum and P. knowlesi.
Due to the pioneering and sensitive nature of some of the research discussed in these lectures, only Crick Lectures from selected speakers will be shared, and we ask all attendees to respect the private nature of these talks by refraining from making any type of recording, sharing access details or in any other way compromising the research that is discussed.
If you'd like to attend in person please let us know at connect@crick.ac.uk