Professor Alister Craig

Emeritus Professor

Alister Craig graduated in Genetics from Edinburgh University in 1981 and obtained his PhD in Molecular Biology from Leicester University in 1984.  He spent the next two years as an EMBO Fellow at EMBL in Heidelberg followed by two years as an ICRF Fellow in London working on developing techniques for genome analysis.  He subsequently worked for ten years at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford on malaria before joining the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 1999. Alister retired from LSTM in June 2023.

Research

Alister’s research focused on the mechanisms of cerebral malaria, with a particular interest on the interactions taking place at the interface between the Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocyte and microvascular endothelium.

Other relevant expertise

Former member of the Wellcome Trust Funding Panel/ Expert Review Group (Pathogen Biology and Disease Transmission) and Scientific Advisory Committee for the European Vaccine Initiative.

Recent publications: 

    Selected publications

    • Christopher A Moxon, Yasir Alhamdi, Janet Storm, Julien Toh, Dagmara McGuinness, Joo Yeon Ko, George Murphy, Steven Lane, Terrie Taylor, Karl Seydel, Sam Kampondeni, Michael Pochen, James O’Donnell, Niamh O’Regan, Guozheng Wang, Guillermo Garcia-Cardena, Malcolm Molyneux, Alister Craig, Simon Abrams, Cheng-Hock Toh (2020) Parasite histones are toxic to brain endothelium and link blood barrier breakdown and thrombosis in cerebral malaria. Blood Advances, 4 (13), pp. 2851-2864.

      Gavin Robertson Meehan, Hannah Elizabeth Scales, Rowland Osii, Mariana De Niz, Jennifer C Lawton, Matthias Marti, Paul Garside, Alister Craig and James M Brewer (2020) Developing a xenograft model of human vasculature in the mouse ear pinna. Sci Rep. 10(1): 2058 Frank Lennartz, Cameron Smith, Alister G. Craig and Matthew K. Higgins (2019) Structural insights into diverse modes of ICAM-1 binding by Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 116(40), 20124-20134

      Janet Storm, Jakob S. Jespersen, Karl B. Seydel, Tadge Szestak, Maurice Mbewe, Ngawina V. Chisala, Patricia Phula, Christian W. Wang, Terrie E. Taylor, Christopher A. Moxon, Thomas Lavstsen and Alister G. Craig (2019) Cerebral malaria is associated with differential cytoadherence to brain endothelial cells. EMBO Mol. Med., 11(2): e9164

      Eilidh Carrington, Thomas D. Otto, Tadge Szestak, Frank Lennartz, Matthew K. Higgins, Chris I. Newbold, Alister G. Craig (2018) In silico guided reconstruction and analysis of ICAM-1-binding var genes from Plasmodium falciparum. Sci. Rep. 8(1):3282

      O'Regan N, Moxon C, Gegenbauer K, O'Sullivan JM, Chion A, Smith OP, Preston RJ, Brophy TM, Craig AG, O'Donnell JS. (2016) Marked elevation in plasma osteoprotegerin constitutes an early and consistent feature of cerebral malaria. Thromb Haemost. 115(4):773-780

      Dumizulu L. Tembo, Benjamin Nyoni, Rekah V. Murikoli , Mavuto Mukaka, Danny A. Milner, Matthew Berriman, Stephen J. Rogerson, Terrie E. Taylor, Malcolm E. Molyneux, Wilson L. Mandala, Alister G. Craig and Jacqui Montgomery (2014) Differential PfEMP1 Expression is Associated with Cerebral Malaria Pathology. Plos Pathog., 10(12): e1004537

      Christopher Alan Moxon, Samuel Crocodile Wassmer, Danny Arnold Milner, Ngawina V Chisala, Terrie Taylor, Karl B Seydel, Malcolm E Molyneux, Brian Faragher, Charles T. Esmon, Colin Downey, Cheng-Hock Toh, Alister G. Craig, and Robert Simon Heyderman (2013) Loss of endothelial protein C receptors links coagulation and inflammation to parasite sequestration in cerebral malaria in African children. Blood 122(5):842-851

      Lucy B. Ochola, Bethsheba R. Siddondo, Harold Ocholla, Siana Nyka, Eva N. Kimani, Thomas N. Williams, Johnstone O. Makale, Anne Liljander, Britta C. Urban, Pete C. Bull, Tadge Szestak, Kevin Marsh and Alister G. Craig (2011) Specific receptor usage in Plasmodium falciparum cytoadherence is associated with disease outcome. PLoS ONE 6(3): e14741