Muayad Mahmud

Supervisor: Andrew MacColl

Research Interests

I am fascinated by studying the genetic basis of resistance to infectious diseases. Host-parasite interactions are an important research area throughout the world, because of their importance in understanding modern medical issues such as antibiotic resistance, autoimmune diseases, virulence and subversion of immune system by pathogens.

By incorporating insights from evolutionary ecology, immunology, parasitology and molecular biology, I am attempting to quantify and understand variation in virulence between different populations of parasites, the ecological causes of this variation, and the impact that it has on the host. I use the interaction between three-spined sticklebacks and their Gyrodactylus hosts as a model system.

Combining knowledge of variation in virulence and the genetic-basis of resistance with other aspects such as biological control and evolutionary medicine has important practical implications in wildlife conservation, domestic and farm animals and controlling of infectious diseases in human.

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