Mr Grant Kay
- Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Tropical Disease Biology
Biography
Grant Kay is a postdoctoral researcher focusing on the endogenous viruses of leishmania, a parasite of significant global health importance. He gained an MBChB from the universities of St Andrews and Manchester during which he developed a keen interest in global health and infectious disease. Grant joined Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in 2017 to undertake an MSc in vector biology and parasitology. In 2018 he was accepted onto the Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Pathway at LSTM and the University of Lancaster through which he completed a PhD focused on the effects of insecticide resistance on the immune systems of mosquitoes, and the impacts on their ability to transmit pathogens including Zika virus. During the COVID-19 pandemic Grant conducted research into the immune responses to infection and evaluated novel diagnostics including lateral flow assays. After completing his PhD in 2023 he began work as a postdoctoral researcher investigating the immune responses of mosquitoes to infections with viruses, and the ability of British mosquitoes to transmit West Nile virus. In 2024 Grant was awarded the LSTM Director’s Catalyst Fund and began investigating how leishmania parasite immune systems control their endogenous viruses, identifying what the impacts are for disease severity and transmission, and assessing how these viruses may present novel treatment targets for leishmaniasis.
Research interests
Grant’s research focuses on viruses that infect the parasites that cause leishmaniasis, an important tropical disease affecting millions of people annually. He is interested in understanding what role these viruses have in the biology of parasites, the severity of leishmaniasis, and how the parasite immune system controls the replication of these internal viruses. With collaborators Grant is working to understand the impact of these viruses on transmission of leishmania by their sandfly vectors. This is a highly understudied area of virology and parasitology and may help identify novel targets for drugs and vaccines to tackle leishmaniasis.
Teaching
Grant delivers teaching sessions on the Tropical Disease Biology MSc at LSTM focusing on pathogen transmission by mosquitoes. He is also involved in the delivery of diagnostic parasitology components of the Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the MSc courses.
Grant has supervised a number of MSc students on projects relating to antiviral immunity in mosquitoes and has been heavily involved in the training of students and staff to work in high containment laboratories for work with hazardous viruses.
Selected research publications
Knockdown resistance allele L1014F introduced by CRISPR/Cas9 is not associated with altered vector competence of Anopheles gambiae for o’nyong nyong virus – Journal: PLoS ONE – Published: 10th August 2023
SARS-CoV-2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays as proxies for plaque reduction neutralisation tests – Journal: Scientific Reports – Published: 1st March 2022
Twelve lateral flow immunoassays (LFAs) to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies – Journal: Journal of Infection – Published: 1st March 2022
SARS-CoV-2 viability on sports equipment is limited, and dependent on material composition – Journal: Scientific Reports – Published: 26th January 2022
Self-sampling of capillary blood for SARS-CoV-2 serology – Journal: Scientific Reports – Published: 8th April 2021
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