2025 Ker Memorial Prize awarded for work on vector-parasite interactions

The Ker Memorial Prize is awarded each year to the student submitting the best PhD thesis in infectious diseases, and is given in memory of two eminent infectious disease physicians - Drs Claude Buchanan Ker, and his son Frank Lieghton Ker, doctors in Edinburgh during the first half of the 20th century.

Catherine will present her thesis work in a talk at the 2025 Edinburgh Infecitous Diseases Sympsoium at the Royal College of Physicians on 16 May 2025.

Malaria, the deadliest vector-borne disease, is caused by Plasmodium parasites, which are transmitted between vertebrate hosts by female Anopheles mosquitoes. 

However, despite its public health importance and decades of intensive research, fundamental aspects of malaria transmission remain poorly understood. By integrating evolutionary ecology, parasitology and vector biology, Catherine’s thesis investigates how the conditions inside a mosquito shapes malaria parasite development and transmission to new vertebrate hosts.

Catherine’s work reveals that malaria parasites show considerable variation in how they grow and develop within the mosquito, and that they can adjust their behaviour to optimise their chances of successful transmission to a new host. For example, parasites can adjust their growth depending on the mosquito’s diet, in ways that may maximise their chance of transmission. 

Her work also demonstrates that environmental changes can affect mosquitoes and parasites in opposite ways. Although parasite productivity is lower in mosquitoes fed on nutrient-poor diets, these mosquitoes are more likely to bite in the evening, when humans are less likely to be protected by bed nets. 

Overall, Catherine's work highlights the need to consider how both mosquitoes and parasites respond to environmental change in order to better understand and control malaria.

Catherine graduated in 2017 with an integrated Masters in Biology from the University of Sheffield. After graduation, she joined London School of Tropical Medicine as a Scientific Officer working on a project investigating the genetics of attractiveness to malaria mosquitoes in the UK and The Gambia. 

In 2020, she moved to Edinburgh to begin her PhD. Catherine is currently a postdoc in Prof. Sarah Reece’s lab, and is due to begin her role as Research Co-lead on a NERC-funded project investigating how daily rhythms shape malaria parasite transmission and evolution in late May 2025.

About the Ker family

Edinburgh Infectious Diseases Annual Symposium

School of Biological Sceicncs

Reece Lab