Barbara is a Research Fellow working in Dr Eva Frickel’s laboratory within the Institute of Microbiology and Infection (IMI), in the College of Life and Environmental Sciences. Barbara works on the cell intrinsic immune response to intracellular pathogens in human cells. She is particularly interested in the interferon gamma (IFNg)-driven control of Toxoplasma gondii at the parasite/cell interface, using high-content fluorescent microscopy to discover the mechanisms of infection control in different cell types. 

Barbara started her research career at the University of Liverpool where she gained a BSc in Medical Cell Biology and Biochemistry. She became interested in infectious disease research during work experience at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. This interest was pursued in Dr Iain Wilson’s laboratory at the National Institute for Medical Research, London where she obtained a PhD in the biophysical regulation of malarial parasite invasion into red blood cells. 

Her interest in malaria continued into a post-doctoral fellowship at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, where she studied the pathogenesis of malaria with Professor Geoffrey Pasvol. Barbara’s research focused on the cytoadherence phenotypes in malarial parasites and their relationship to red blood cell invasion.  Barbara joined Dr Eva Frickel’s group at the National Institute for Medical Research in 2012 as a Senior Investigator Scientist and started research into cell-intrinsic immunity to Toxoplasma gondii, focusing on interferon gamma (IFNg)-driven host defence to the parasite. She continued investigating the IFNg- and ubiquitin-dependent restriction of Toxoplasma when the laboratory moved to the Francis Crick Institute in 2016. As a Principal Laboratory Research Scientist, Barbara used fluorescence microscopy, proximity biotinylation and mass spectrometry techniques to uncover novel host defence proteins co-operating in Toxoplasma control.  

Barbara is currently a postdoctoral research fellow working with Dr Eva Frickel at the IMI, University of Birmingham. Her research into innate host response to Toxoplasma is focused on infection in human retinal cells as a model for ocular toxoplasmosis.