Professor Paul Bates

Emeritus

Research Overview

My expertise is in tropical infectious diseases, in particular medically important parasites and their interactions with insect and mammalian hosts. My main interest is Leishmania, causing various forms of the tropical disease leishmaniasis, and the role of vectors in transmission. Biochemistry, cell biology and molecular genetics are used to dissect the host-parasite relationship. One output of such research is the identification of targets for chemotherapeutic or immunological intervention. Another is the development of model systems for the evaluation of drugs and vaccines. I am also a major contributor to the establishment of a new group of Leishmania parasites, the subgenus Mundinia, having contributed to describing and characterizing several new species. Although I am now retired and no longer have a research lab, I maintain an active interest in the field through collaborations.