University of York scientist honoured with OBE
Posted on 14 June 2010
The award is in recognition of her work as Chair of the UK Medical Research Council’s Infections and Immunity Board.Professor Smith is Professor of Molecular Parasitology in the Department of Biology and leads a research group in the Centre for Immunology and Infection which she helped to establish.
Her current research is focused on finding new drugs and vaccines to treat deadly diseases, in particular human leishmaniasis and African trypanosomiasis, that are spread by parasites in some of the poorest parts of the world.
She said: “I am pleased to accept this award which recognises the importance of biomedical research in the UK, particularly to our understanding of infectious diseases and their underlying causes.”
Professor Smith originally trained as a biochemist at the University of Southampton and worked as a research scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research in London and the National Cancer Institute in Washington DC before moving to Imperial College London where she developed her research interests in parasitology.
After serving as Deputy Head of the Biochemistry Department and Deputy Chair of the Graduate School of Life Sciences and Medicine, she moved to the University of York in 2004.
Notes to editors:
- The Centre for Immunology and Infection (CII) is a joint research centre created by the Hull York Medical School and the Department of Biology at the University of York. Research within the CII ranges from fundamental studies on the pathogenesis of infectious disease through to first-in-man clinical research.
- Leishmaniasis is a fly-borne disease caused by single-celled parasites called Leishmania. There are approximately 2 million cases of leishmaniasis per year in 88 countries worldwide, of which 500,000 are of the potentially fatal form of the disease (visceral leishmaniasis).
- Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) is commonly known as sleeping sickness. Each year, between 50,000 and 70,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa contract the disease spread by the bite of the tsetse fly. HAT gets its more common name from the disturbance of the sleep cycle caused by the parasites infecting the brain.
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