2024 Spring Council Meeting

The MBL Council Spring Meeting was held on April 9, 2024, at The Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA. Guests gathered for a discussion about training and discoveries in parasitology, the impact on human health, and the important role the MBL plays in the scientific community. The MBL’s Biology of Parasitism (BOP) Advanced Research Training Course (ARTC) was highlighted and both alumni and faculty were represented on the panel.

Kate Rawlinson, Flaminia Catteruccia, Laura de Vries, and Brett Leav
Kate Rawlinson, Flaminia Catteruccia, Laura de Vries, and Brett Leav

Moderator: Dyann Wirth, MBL Trustee and  Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, hosted and moderated the discussion. Wirth is one of the world's leading malariologists, dealing with how the genus Plasmodium has evolved in terms of population biology, drug resistance, and antigenicity. The Wirth Laboratory combines the expertise of the Harvard School of Public Health, the Broad Institute, and international collaborators for malaria research and training in public health.

Panelists:

Kate Rawlinson is a Resident Scientist in the MBL’s Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution who focuses on the development, neurobiology and biological rhythms of parasitic and marine flatworms that impact human health.

Flaminia Catteruccia is a Professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator who researches the molecular basis of reproductive biology in Anopheles mosquitoes, the malaria vectors, and of the factors that shape the development of the malaria parasite during mosquito stages.

Laura de Vries is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Catteruccia Lab at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who studies the interactions of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and its Anopheles mosquito host regarding nutrient uptake and metabolism.

Brett Leav is a Board-certified Infectious Disease physician with a deep long-standing interest in immunology and development of novel biologic therapeutics against infectious diseases who is currently serving as the Executive Director of Clinical Development for Public Health Vaccines at Moderna, with responsibility for overseeing the Global and Public Health Vaccine portfolio.