Natalie Barber

natalie barber

Natalie joined us in 2015 as a D. Phil. student funded by the Wellcome Trust program in Cellular Structural Biology and successfully defended her thesis in December 2019. She used structural studies to investigate the inhibition of Plasmodium vivax reticulocyte invasion by a broadly neutralising antibody and to assess a synthetic EPCR-binding protein. She also used structural insight to design a novel and improved PvDBP-based vaccine immunogen which we aim to include in the Plasmodium vivax malaria vaccines of the future!

Before joining us, Natalie achieved a first-class degree from the University of Oxford undergraduate course in Biochemistry, and worked with Professor Susan Lea to assess inhibitors of the complement system. Natalie is now studying graduate medicine.

Publications from the lab:

Barber, N.M.*, Pholcharee, T.*, Lias, A.M., Quinkert, D., Nugent, J., King, L.D.W., Draper, S.J. and Higgins, M.K. (2024) Structure-guided design of a Plasmodium vivax Duffy binding protein-based vaccine immunogen. BioRXIV doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.23.600241 (*joint first author)

Rawlinson, T.A.*, Barber, N.M.*, Mohring, F., Cho, J.S., Kosaisavee, V., Gérard, S.F., Alanine, D.G.W., Labbé, G.M., Elias. S.C., Silk, S.E., Quinkert, D., Jin, J., Marshall, J.M., Payne, R.O., Minassian, A.M., Russell, B., Rénia, K., Nosten. F.H., Moon, R.W., Higgins, M.K. and Draper, S.J. (2019) Structural basis for inhibition of Plasmodium vivax invasion by a broadly neutralising vaccine-induced human antibody. Nature Microbiology 4 1497-1507 (*joint first author)

Barber, N.M.*, Lau, C.Y.K.*, Turner, L., Watson, G., Thrane, S., Lusingu, J.P.A., Lavstsen, T and Higgins, M.K. (2020) Structure-guided design of a synthetic mimic of an EPCR-binding PfEMP1 protein. mSphere 6 e01081-20 (* joint corresponding)