Ruth Cowlishaw

MRC-DTP PhD Researcher

I completed a BSc in Biology at Liverpool John Moores University, going on to undertake a postgraduate MSc in Biology and Control of Parasites and Disease Vectors and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Following on from this I undertook a technical role investigating insecticide resistance within Anopheles mosquito populations. Throughout my time in the Vector Department, I was responsible for rearing mosquitoes, undertaking bioassays and helping to design CRISPR Cas-9 experiments to investigate individual KDR mutations in isolation.

From there, following my love of public engagement I moved to the Education Department at LSTM, becoming a Teaching Laboratory Assistant. Over 2 years I helped teach a variety of students diagnostic parasitology and laboratory techniques. This also allowed me to join the HUGS team out in Malawi to undertake fieldwork, investigating the hybridisation of schistosomes along the lake shore.

In October of 2024 I started my studies as a Medical Research Council (MRC) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) PhD researcher at LSTM, under the guidance of Prof Russell Stothard. I will also be working closely alongside Knowsley Safari and their baboon colony.

My particular research interests are strongly One Health focused, understanding the links between human and animal infections. My studies will mainly focus on the epidemiology and genotypes of the parasitic nematodes Trichuris and Strongyloides, investigating infections in captive and wild primates.

Selected publications

  • Williams, J., Cowlishaw, R., Sanou, A., Ranson, H. and Grigoraki, L., 2021. In vivo functional validation of the V402L voltage gated sodium channel mutation in the malaria vector An. gambiae. Pest Management Science. Grigoraki, L., Cowlishaw, R., Nolan, T., Donnelly, M., Lycett, G. and Ranson, H., 2021. CRISPR/Cas9 modified An. gambiae carrying kdr mutation L1014F functionally validate its contribution in insecticide resistance and interaction with metabolic enzymes. PLOS Genetics.

    https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ps.6731  Williams, J., Cowlishaw, R., Sanou, A., Ranson, H. and Grigoraki, L., 2022. In vivo functional validation of the V402L voltage gated sodium channel mutation in the malaria vector An. gambiae. Pest Management Science, 78(3), pp.1155-1163. Williams, J., Cowlishaw, R., Sanou, A., Ranson, H. and Grigoraki, L., 2022. In vivo functional validation of the V402L voltage gated sodium channel mutation in the malaria vector An. gambiae. Pest Management Science, 78(3), pp.1155-1163.