Dina Vlachou

Dina Vlachou is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London. Her research focuses on malaria transmission biology, particularly the interactions between Plasmodium parasites and Anopheles mosquitoes. She leads a team investigating molecular mechanisms of parasite development in mosquitoes, immune evasion strategies, and gene drive technologies for malaria control.

Education & Experience:

• Postdoctoral Training: Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB-FORTH), Greece
• Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Netherlands
• EMBL (Heidelberg, Germany) as a Marie Curie Fellow
• Adjunct Assistant Professor at Cyprus Institute (2013–2023)

Research Interests:

• Mechanisms of parasite development within mosquitoes
• Host-parasite molecular interactions
• Vector immune responses targeting Plasmodium
• Gene drive-modified mosquitoes for transmission blocking
• Nanobody engineering for parasite targeting

Affiliations:

• Imperial College Network of Excellence in Malaria
• Infection and Immunity Group
• Vaccine Research Network

Current Projects:

• Nanobody-driven targeting of malaria parasites in mosquitoes
• Novel molecular pathways in Plasmodium sexual development
• Ookinete egress mechanisms as transmission blockades