Collaborating researchers

Professor Andrew Stuart Brierley

I am an aquatic ecologist. I lead the Pelagic Ecology Research Group (PERG) from the Scottish Oceans Institute at the University of St Andrews. We conduct research on the ecology and behaviour of zooplankton and fish, the higher predators that feed on them and, increasingly, on links between lake fish abundance and human health. This includes more recent work on the relationship - spatially - between fish abundance in the shallow margins of Lake Victoria, the abundnace of schistosomiasis intermediate-host snails (that may be predated by fish), and schistosomiasis prevalence rates in lakeside villages. We are pursuing the potential win:win outcome whereby restored shallow-water fish stocks may bring reductions in schistosomiasis infection via snail biocontrol and improved food security via sustainable harvest of restored fish stocks. I recently started collaborating with the Lamberton Lab, and am a co-applicant for the Scottish Schistosomiasis Workshop funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Email: asb4@st-andrews.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000 0002 6438 6892
University of St Andrews


Dr Lucy Pickering

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I am a medical anthropologist at the University of Glasgow. After completing my PhD in social anthropology examining embodiment and American counterculture, I worked on various dimensions of illicit drug use and recovery. During my doctoral and drugs research work I continued to publish in the area of my primary passion – dirt and pollution. I have explored this theme in relation to composting toilets, constipation in heroin addiction and the hidden politics of menstruation. I am currently working with the Lamberton Group on schistosomiasis transmission in rural Uganda, with a particular focus on the everyday ways in which people understand schistosomiasis to be transmitted, and ideas about and uses of dirt, water and latrines.

Email: lucy.pickering@glasgow.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000-0002-1240-4059
Instagram: @DirtyScholars


Dr Joaquin Prada

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I am a Lecturer in Veterinary Epidemiology at the University of Surrey. After finishing my Engineering Degree, I moved to the Vet. School at the University of Glasgow for a PhD modelling sheep and nematode interactions. I then joined the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at Princeton University as a postdoctoral research associate, before moving to the Mathematics department at the University of Warwick, where I worked modelling control and elimination interventions for a wide range of diseases. I then started my current position at Surrey, with a focus on informing policy decision-making, enhancing understanding of diagnostics and modelling infectious disease dynamics using machine learning and other statistical tools. Currently, I collaborate with the NTD modelling consortium and I am a member of the NTDhub; I work on a wide range of infectious diseases, from macro-parasites (Lymphatic filariasis, Schistosomiasis and helminths) to Viruses (Measles, FMDV), in both humans and animals.

Twitter: @EpiPixels
Email: j.prada@surrey.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000-0003-4699-5931


Dr Eva Janouskova

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I am a Research Fellow in Mathematical Modelling at the University of Surrey. After completing a Master's Degree in Statistics and Data Analysis, I obtained my PhD in Probability, Statistics and Mathematical Modelling, with a focus on deterministic models. Currently, my main focus is a project with Dr. Joaquin Prada and Dr. Poppy Lamberton developing an individual-based transmission model to assess sustainable interventions against schistosomiasis in Uganda. I also collaborate more broadly on a number of Neglected Tropical Diseases, such as modelling rabies transmission in Brazil with Dr. Gustavo Machado from NC State University, United States.

Twitter: @EvaJ_MathModel
Email: e.janouskova@surrey.ac.uk
ORCID: 0000-0002-4104-0119
Publons: ABF-1421-2020


Dr Justin K. Nono

Justin Komguep Nono is an Immunoparasitologist and molecular biologist specialized in the study of Schistosomiasis and currently working as research officer, Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and Head of the associated unit of Immunobiology of Helminth Infections at the Institute of Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies of Cameroon, with a secondment as honorary senior Lecturer at the Division of Immunology of the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Dr Nono current research interests revolve around the mechanistic bases of human-schistosomes interactions with a focus on host determinants of susceptibility / resistance to infection and pathology and parasite ploys at play to evade the human host immune responses. His research approaches include host omics, immune phenotypic and functional typing, all techniques put to contribution during clinical surveys he primarily carries out in endemic populations from rural Cameroon

He has been a successful recipient of funding and awards from the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom Royal Society, the Claude Leon Foundation, the South African Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences.

He also engages in the teaching and training of students as he remains a strong advocate of local capacity building in sub-Saharan Africa in support of the transition towards locally-driven research, to facilitate the control and elimination of Schistosomiasis globally in particular, and foster development in general.

He is the current co-chair of the UK-based Research Working Group of the Global Schistosomiasis Alliance and a founding member of JRJ Health, a Cameroon-based association for the promotion of Health and well-being; he also serves as the Chief of Service of the Grant Management Office of the Institute for Medical Research and Medicinal Plants Studies in Cameroon and is a member of other strategic international research societies such as the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the German Society for Parasitology.

He is an ad hoc reviewer of more than 40 International research journals, universities theses committees, funding agencies such as the European Union, the South African national Research Foundation and a WHO regional Expert for Schistosomiasis. He serves as an academic editor for Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases and guest Editor for Frontiers in Tropical Diseases.

Twitter: @ibhi_lab
Email: justkoms@yahoo.fr
Website: https://www.ibhi-lab.com/
Publications: https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=vovlm4EAAAAJ&hl=en