Baum lab
The Baum lab has a wide range of interests covering every scale of biology and every stage of the malaria parasite lifecycle, developing new innovative technologies that advance the malaria eradication agenda. Imaging has been a long-standing core expertise, but we are also keen geneticists and increasingly fascinated by immunology, flow cytometry and vaccine platform technology. Our work depends on the full mosquito lifecycle (using Plasmodium berghei and P. falciparum) and development of robust methods for in vitro and ex vivo infection study. Our primary focus since relocating to Sydney is walking the walk of next generation malaria vaccine development. The world has waited too long for an efficacious, long-lasting malaria vaccine! As a lab, we're ultimately best defined by the diverse interests and amazing unique skills of each researcher in the lab, each person bringing their own style and thinking towards a holistic understanding of translational infectious disease biology.
Jake Baum
Lab Head: Although my research career has covered many wide areas of interests, I have had a long-standing fascination with the cell biology of malaria parasites. I am also passionate about malaria vaccines, diagnostics & translation.
Michael Johnson
Research Manager. Mike is the backbone of our lab managing everything from transmission to microscopy and molecular biology. Mike has a passion for imaging - watch this space for what's to come...
Jem Murdoch
PhD student: Jem joined us in Sydney after a Masters in the Imperial College laboratory, Jem is tackling key questions in sporozoite biology towards pre-erythrocytic vaccinology in particular the identification of novel B-cell target antigens.
Claire Sayers
Postdoctoral Scientist. Back in Oz after a long stint in Europe where Claire developed innovative programs in rodent malaria parasite barcoding. Claire is the lead postdoc for our work on transmission at UNSW.
Darren Liu
Research Assistant. Darren has a strong background in histology and mouse models. He's going to run the insectary and get transmission going! Exciting times.
Behdad Delavari
Postdoctoral Scientist. Behdad is our first bona fide engineer and joins us at an exciting time where we are starting to move sporozoite production from hands on to hands free (and GMP compliant)!
Grace Peters
PhD student: Grace completed an Honours at the Centenary Institute where she studied mitochondrial regulation in Mycobacterium abscessus infection. Her PhD focusses on T-cell epitope discovery for next generation vaccines.
Kurt Ward
Postdoctoral Scientist. Fresh from the USA (Fidock lab) Kurt leads our collaboration with Anne Houdusse (Curie) and Kathy Trybus (Vermont) working on Plasmodium myosin motors.
Anne Nguyen
PhD student: Anne completed her Masters at UTS exploring vaccine target antigens in Toxoplasma. Her PhD focus centres on developing new vaccine platforms for multi-lifecycle stage targeting.
Emmanuel Gyamfi
PhD student: Emmanuel spent several years working on malaria transmission in both France and Cambodia. His PhD is blazing a trail in transmission blocking strategies, and is firmly centred on Pf transmission!
Harry Pollard
Research Assistant: Harry came to the lab from LSHTM as an experienced insectary manager - joining the team as work gets underway to ramp up mosquito transmission studies in both Pf and Pb to test vaccines!
Georgia Wunderlich
Research Assistant: Georgia is a recent PhD graduate in Mycology. Although we're a malaira lab, our longstanding interest in diagnostics is now extending to Fungal Infections, with Georgia leading the charge.
Cam McMenamie
Research Assistant: Cam is a computational sciences graduate mastering AI/ML tools to analyse protein shape and function computationally. The AI protein revolution is coming to vaccines...
Frank Weate
Research Assistant: Following on from his Hons in Computer Sciences, Frank joins the team and is developing the App version of PlasmoCount as well as contributing to work on ML/AI approaches to T-cell epitope discovery.
Geoffrey Pasvol
Emeritus Professor and legend, Geoff is our lab mentor, a maestro in the field of clinical malaria, pathogenesis and red cell invasion with a particular interest in the still unresolved question of why children actually die from malaria...
Past lab members and visitors
Ms Shannen Butterly (Technician) 2023; Dr Adrian Najer (Postdoc/Senior Research Fellow) 2023; Dr Claire Andradi-Brown (PhD) 2023; Dr Farah Dahalan (Postdoc) 2022; Ms Hasha Hayden-Smith (Project Manager) 2022; Mr Alex Fyfe (Technician) 2022; Mr Mark Tunnicliff (Technician) 2022; Mr David Novotny (Research Assistant) 2022; Dr Sabrina Yahiya (PhD) 2022; Dr Mufiliat Toyin Famodimu (Postdoc) 2022; Dr Mo Ducker (Postdoc) 2022; Dr Fabio Fisher (Lab Manager) 2022; Dr Alisje Churchyard (Postdoc) 2021; Mr Ade Balogun (MSc) 2021; Mr Jinyuan Zhang (MSc) 2021; Ms Bowen Zhang (MSc) 2021; Mr Zayd Normand (MSc) 2021; Ms Chloe Lieng (MRES) 2021; Dr Josh Blight (Postdoc) 2021; Dr Eliana Real (Postdoc) 2021; Ms Shubha Talwar (MRES) 2020; Ms Carmen Rodriguez (MRES) 2020; Mr David Grimson (Research Assistant) 2021; Ms Mira Davidson (Technician) 2020; Dr Thomas Blake (PhD) 2020; Dr George Ashdown (Postdoc) 2020; Ms Emmanuoela Petsolari (MSc) 2020; Mr Jingran Zhuo (MRES) 2020; Ms Nina Short (MSc) 2020; Ms Marine Secchi (MRES) 2020; Ms Josephine Eum (MRES) 2020; Dr Silvia Haase (Postdoc) 2019; Dr Kathrin Witmer (Postdoc) 2019; Ms Karolina Oniszczuk (Technician) 2019; Ms Sarah Jordan (MSc) 2019; Mr Adam Efrat (MSc) 2019; Ms Irene Garcia Barbazan (Technician) 2019; Dr Kate Wright (Postdoc) 2019; Mr Fernando Sanchez-Roman Teran (Technician) 2019; Ms Linda Makhlouf (Technician) 2019; Ms Pantki Vaishnav (MSc) 2019; Dr Oriol Llora (PhD) 2019; Mr Oriol Llora (Visitor) 2019; Ms Evelyn Quansah (Visitor); Mr Brian Leung (MRES) 2018; Dr Oliver Lyth (PhD) 2018; Ms Emily Calamita (MSc) 2018; Ms Maddy Wynn (MSc) 2018; Ms Houriiyah Tegally (MSc) 2018; Dr Michael Delves (PDRA) 2018; Dr Marion Koch (PhD graduate) 2018; Ms Ursula Straschil (Technician and Laboratory Manager) 2018; Ms Dounia Cherkoui (Technician and MRES) 2018; Mr Tariq Shour (MSc) 2018; Ms Abigail Laverack (MRES) 2018; Mr Toby Barnes (MRES) 2017; Ms Eva Hamrud (MSc) 2017; Ms Dounia Cherkoui (MSc) 2017; Dr Holly Matthews (Postdoc) 2017; Ms. Celia Miguel Blanco (Technician) 2017; Ms. Olivia Swann (Technician) 2017; Mr. Max Addison (MRES) 2017; Ms. Xenia Karlsson (MSc) 2016; Ms. Sara Zakutansky (RT) 2016; Ms. Katja Hassler (Medical Student Visitor) 2016; Dr. Hella Baumann (Postdoc) 2016; Ms. Linda Makhlouf (MSc) 2016; Ms. Olivia Swann (MSc) 2016; Dr. Rama McCrorie (Postdoc) 2016; Dr. Andrea Ruecker (Postdoc) 2016; Dr. Chwen Tay (Postdoc) 2016; Ms. Eloise Withnell (Undergrad) 2016; Ms. Janice Tong (Undergrad) 2016; Mr. Dominic Raffin (Undergrad) 2016; Mr. Matthew Sinnott (Undergrad) 2016; Mr. Vladimir Chapman (Undergrad) 2016; Mr. David Busse (MSc) 2016; Ms. Mengqiao Li (MSc) 2016; Mr. Hossain Delowar (MSc) 2016; Dr. Sara Rute Lamas Oliveira Marques (Postdoc) 2016; Mr. Niklas Rehmert (MSc) 2015; Ms. Desiree Eggers (MSc) 2015; Mr Jonathan Mitchell (MSc) 2015; Dr. Alexandre Dufour (Visitor - Pasteur Institute) 2014; Dr. Maya Olshina (PhD) 2014; Dr. Liz Zuccala (PhD) 2014; Dr. Fiona Angrisano (PhD) 2014; Ms. Rachel Gillespie (MSc) 2014; Ms. Josie Ferreira (MSc) 2014; Mr. Javier Vinals Camallonga (MSc) 2014; Dr. Silvia Haase (Postdoc) 2014; Dr. Wilson Wong (Postdoc) 2014; Ms. Melanie Condron (Technician) 2014; Ms. Yan Hong Tan (Research Technician) 2014; Mr. Raphael Kim (Technician) 2014; Ms. Melanie Stockhausen (MSc) 2014; Ms. Grace Singh (Undergrad) 2014; Dr. Noa Dahan Pasternak (Visitor) 2013; Dr. Tim Satchwell (Visitor) 2013; Dr. Mark Scott (Visitor) 2013; Dr. Kartik Bane (Visitor) 2012; Dr. Ito Daisuke (Visitor) 2012; Dr. David Riglar (PhD) 2012; Mr. Danushka Marapana (Technician) 2012.