Professor Mark Carrington
Mark Carrington is an Emeritus Professor of Molecular Biology in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. He studied Botany and Plant Molecular Biology at University and then switched to working on trypanosomes at the MRC Unit of molecular Parasitology. After an EMBO Fellowship in Germany he started his laboratory in Cambridge and over the last 35 years has made many discoveries about the basic biology of trypanosomes and their interactions with mammalian hosts.
He has a current interest in two unique features of trypanosome biology: how the cell surface architecture negates the host immune response and the almost total dependence on post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression with the goal of understanding the molecular mechanism of how codon use determines mRNA stability.
Genome organization is a major component of gene expression control in response to stress and during the cell-division cycle in trypanosomes.
Kelly S, Schwede A, Maini P K, Gull K, Carrington M. (2012) Open Biol 2:120033.
Codon choice directs constitutive mRNA levels in trypanosomes.
de Freitas Nascimento J, Kelly S, Sunter J, Carrington M. (2018). Elife. 7: e32467 doi:10.7554/eLife.32467.
Evolutionary diversification of the trypanosome haptoglobin-haemoglobin receptor from an ancestral haemoglobin receptor
Lane-Serff H, MacGregor P, Peacock L, Macleod OJ, Kay C, Gibson W, Higgins MK, Carrington M. (2016). eLife 2016;5:e13044
Structure of the trypanosome transferrin receptor reveals mechanisms of ligand recognition and immune evasion
Trevor C, Gonzalez-Munoz AL, MacLeod OJS, Woodcock PG, Rust S, Vaughan TJ, Garman EF, Minter R, Carrington M and Higgins MK (2019). Nature Microbiol. 4, 2074–2081
A receptor for the complement regulator factor H increases transmission of trypanosomes to tsetse flies
Macleod OJS, Bart JM, MacGregor P, Peacock L, Savill NJ, Hester S, Ravel S, Sunter JD, Trevor C, Rust S, Vaughan TJ, Minter R, Mohammed S, Gibson W, Taylor MC, Higgins MK, Carrington M. Nat Commun. 11:1326. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15125-y.
Invariant surface glycoprotein 65 of Trypanosoma brucei is a complement C3 receptor
Macleod OJS, Cook AD, Webb H, Crow M, Burns R, Redpath M, Seisenberger S, Trevor CE, Peacock L, Schwede A, Kimblin N, Francisco AF, Pepperl J, Rust S, Voorheis P, Gibson W, Taylor MC, Higgins MK, Carrington M. (2022) Nat
Commun. 2022 Aug 29;13(1):5085. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32728-9.
A single dose of antibody-drug conjugate cures a stage 1 model of African trypanosomiasis
MacGregor P, Gonzalez-Munoz AL, Jobe F, Taylor MC, Rust S, Sandercock AM, Macleod OJS, Van Bocxlaer K, Francisco AF, D'Hooge F, Tiberghien A, Barry CS, Howard P, Higgins MK, Vaughan T, Minter R, Carrington M. (2019). PLoS Negl Trop Dis.13:e0007373
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