The Ingham Lab

Malaria is one of the world’s deadliest diseases with 247 million cases and 619 000 deaths in 2021. Africa remains the continent with the highest burden of malaria, accounting for 90% of worldwide cases. Malaria is caused by parasites of the Plasmodium sp, and it is transmitted through the infectious bite of an Anopheles mosquito. The primary prevention of malaria, accounting for an estimated 81% of cases averted between 2000-2015, is the use of insecticides to kill the mosquito before it can transmit the disease to the human host, with the remaining 19% attributed to drug use. Unfortunately, insecticide resistance to the main classes of insecticides used in malaria control are now widespread.

​

The Ingham lab, headed by Dr Victoria Ingham, investigates the impact of the insecticide resistance phenotype on Plasmodium development and thus how this impacts onwards transmission. To understand this, we look at changes to mosquito biology due to resistance and exposure to insecticidal compounds aand how this impacts development of the malaria parasite within the mosquito vector. Further, by understanding insecticide resistance mechanisms, we can develop new tools to control the mosqtuio vector. To address these questions, we combine bioinformatics, molecular biology, phenotyping and imaging techniques.