Dr Glenn McConkey, Assoc Prof
- Position: Associate Professor
- Areas of expertise: biochemical networks; quantitative biology; cell biology; genomics; epigenetics; metabolic modelling; host-parasite interactions; malaria; Toxoplasma; behaviour
- Email: G.A.McConkey@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 2908
- Location: 8.23 Miall
Profile
I graduated with dual majors in Biochemistry and Microbiology & Public Health from Michigan State University and received a Ph.D. in Cellular and Developmental Biology studying transcriptional gene regulation during animal development at the State University of New York in Stony Brook. I was awarded a National Research Council fellowship for postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health, USA and was promoted to NIH Senior Staff Fellow.
I moved to Britain in 1996 to take up a lectureship in Animal Biology and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2004 and to Associate Professor in 2015. My research in Quantitative Biology focuses on interactions of metabolism in host-parasite relationships. My work on modelling metabolism using constraint-based modelling with flux-balance analysis on the parasites responsible for malaria has been groundbreaking (funded by EU), providing hypotheses for experimental testing. My research on a neurotropic parasite is uncovering novel modes of epigenetic regulation in human and rat neurons.
I have interdisciplinary collaborators in the Biomedical and Health Research Centre, served as Deputy Director of the Antimicrobial Research Centre, and member of Leeds Omics and Africa College. My recent work on parasite metabolism and neurotransmission regulation by a parasite has far-reaching implications on fundamental cell biology.
I am interested in the interactions of animals and their environments and how these alter their metabolism and behavior. We study molecular and cellular interactions of parasites and their host cells and organisms. Our studies focus on a family of single-celled, intracellular protozoan parasites named Apicomplexa that include malaria parasites and the zoonotic parasite Toxoplasma. With 1/3 of the population (principally in tropical areas) at risk of malaria and Toxoplasma infection in circa 20% of the population globally, it is important to understand their interactions with humans and animals and find new treatments. Of particular interest is the effect of Toxoplasma infection on host behaviour.
Systems biology analysis of host-parasite metabolic networks in ecosystems
In collaboration with Professor David Westhead, we have developed software, named metaTIGER, for analysis of eukaryotic genomes and mapping biochemical pathway networks and phylogenetic dendograms of enzymes to assess their origins, freely available at www.bioinformatics.leeds.ac.uk/metatiger/, as well as Plasmodium-specific software, PlasmoPredict, openly available at www.bioinformatics.leeds.ac.uk/%7ebio5pmrt/PlasmoPredict/PlasmoPredict.html , for protein identification based on multiple genomics datasets. This provides systems analysis of host-parasite interactions at the genomic level.
Antiparasite drug discovery
An essential enzyme from our network analysis of the human and malaria parasite Plasmodium was validated and is now the target for inhibitor design in an interdisciplinary project with crystallographers and chemists.
Neurotransmitters, behaviour manipulation, and ecosystem structure
Our biochemical network analysis suggests a direct link between behaviour changes in animals infected with Toxoplasma and neurotransmission. Latent infection with Toxoplasma causes a ‘fatal feline attraction’ in infected rodents, originally described by my collaborator Professor Joanne Webster, that increases the likelihood of predation for completion of the parasite’s life cycle. Our finding genomic evidence that this neurotropic parasite can directly alter host behaviour provides the most conclusive example of Darwinian ‘Extended Phenotype’. Neurological effects in human populations, as accidental hosts, has important implications with a large percentage of the population latently infected.
Lab members
Lab members Frances Totanes, Norhidayah Badya, Mohammad Alsaad, Ellen Tedford, and Assoc Prof McConkey; from the Philippines, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, UK and USA/UK, respectively.
Previous PhD students:
Isra Alsaady, 2017
Francis Totanes, 2017
Mohammad Alsaad
Noha Affan, 2016
Maya Kaushek, 2015
Sarmad Mageed, 2013
Thomas Forth, 2013
Fraser Cunningham, 2013
Ingela Fritzson, 2012
Paul Bedingfield, 2011
Paul Acklam, 2011
Phillip Tedder, 2010
Deborah Cowen, 2009
John Whitaker, 2009
Elizabeth Gaskell, 2008
Timo Heikkila, 2008
John Pinney, 2007
Louisa McRobert, 2001
Responsibilities
- Head, Heredity, Disease & Development Research Group
- Module Manager, BLGY2137, BLGY2201 & BIOL5171M
Research interests
Genomics of host-pathogen interactions and metabolism
Heredity, Development and Disease
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://biologicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>Qualifications
- BS Biochemistry/Microbiology double major, Michigan State; PhD 1987, State University of New York, Stony Brook
- PhD Cellular and Developmental Biology, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Professional memberships
- British Society of Parasitology
- AAAS
Student education
- Neurophysiological consequences of infection with a brain parasite and implications on the animal host's behaviour and neurological disorders
- Bioinformatics and genome analysis to model parasite metabolism for drug evaluation, target identification, and defining host-parasite interactions (Marie Curie ITN).
- Parasite drug target discovery and inhibitor identification for antimalarial and anti parasitic development.
Studentship information
Postgraduate studentship areas:
- Neurophysiological consequences of infection with a brain parasite and implications on the animal host's behaviour and neurological disorders.
- Bioinformatics and genome analysis to model parasite metabolism for drug evaluation, target identification, and defining host-parasite interactions (Marie Curie ITN).
- Parasite drug target discovery and inhibitor identification for antimalarial and anti parasitic development.
See also:
- Faculty Graduate School
- FindaPhD Project details:
Research groups and institutes
- Neuroscience and Behaviour
- Heredity, Development and Disease
- Antimicrobial resistance and drug discovery
- Cell and Organismal Biology
- Development
- Gene regulation
- Health and Disease
- Host-pathogen interactions
- Microbiology
- Molecular Neuroscience
Projects
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<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1668-manipulation-of-neuroimmune-responses-and-behaviour-by-infectious-agents">Manipulation of neuroimmune responses and behaviour by infectious agents</a></li>