ProfessorThomas Churcher
Professor of Infectious Disease Dynamics
School of Public Health - Faculty of Medicine
Orcid identifier0000-0002-8442-0525 (opens in a new tab)
- Professor of Infectious Disease DynamicsSchool of Public Health - Faculty of Medicine
- Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, 90 Wood Lane, London, W12 0BZ, United Kingdom
RESEARCH
Overview
Controlling mosquitoes is the most effective way of preventing malaria but new tools are urgently needed as cases are again on the rise. I use laboratory and surveillance data to understand how best to use existing and novel interventions to improve disease control and push for elimination.
Vector Control
Killing mosquitoes remains one of the most important global public health interventions. There are many different ways to target the mosquito and the most effective interventions will vary from place to place. My research focusses on using novel analytical methods and mathematical models (https://mrc-ide.github.io/malariasimulation/) to evaluate the efficacy of different vector control tools and predict the best way to use them to prevent disease. Key to this is understanding the biology and impact of insecticide resistance and how best to monitor mosquitoes in low resource settings. Working closely with control programmes, scientists from disease endemic countries and policy makers we aim to optimise the use of vector control and produce practical, policy relevant research.
Surveillance
As an area approaches local elimination it becomes increasingly difficult to measure malaria accurately. We are developing new epidemiological tools to allow countries to quantify their current level of transmission from routine surveillance data. These methods can be used to determine whether endemic transmission has been halted and show where and when control programs should target their resources to achieve elimination.
Transmission Biology
The processes governing transmission of malaria between mosquito and human and back again are diverse and complex. Understanding and controlling disease transmission is essential to reduce morbidity and eliminate the infection. My group has been working on investigating the biology of malaria transmission to see how drugs, vaccines and diagnostics can be best used to control the disease. We work closely with scientists in disease endemic countries to understand the best way to evaluate novel transmission reducing interventions candidates and predict their impact in the field.
Controlling mosquitoes is the most effective way of preventing malaria but new tools are urgently needed as cases are again on the rise. I use laboratory and surveillance data to understand how best to use existing and novel interventions to improve disease control and push for elimination.
Vector Control
Killing mosquitoes remains one of the most important global public health interventions. There are many different ways to target the mosquito and the most effective interventions will vary from place to place. My research focusses on using novel analytical methods and mathematical models (https://mrc-ide.github.io/malariasimulation/) to evaluate the efficacy of different vector control tools and predict the best way to use them to prevent disease. Key to this is understanding the biology and impact of insecticide resistance and how best to monitor mosquitoes in low resource settings. Working closely with control programmes, scientists from disease endemic countries and policy makers we aim to optimise the use of vector control and produce practical, policy relevant research.
Surveillance
As an area approaches local elimination it becomes increasingly difficult to measure malaria accurately. We are developing new epidemiological tools to allow countries to quantify their current level of transmission from routine surveillance data. These methods can be used to determine whether endemic transmission has been halted and show where and when control programs should target their resources to achieve elimination.
Transmission Biology
The processes governing transmission of malaria between mosquito and human and back again are diverse and complex. Understanding and controlling disease transmission is essential to reduce morbidity and eliminate the infection. My group has been working on investigating the biology of malaria transmission to see how drugs, vaccines and diagnostics can be best used to control the disease. We work closely with scientists in disease endemic countries to understand the best way to evaluate novel transmission reducing interventions candidates and predict their impact in the field.
GRANTS
- GRANTMRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling (Renewal P07082)Medical Research Council (MRC)1 Apr 2013 - 31 Mar 2018