Matt Higgins
@parasitematt.bsky.social
Molecular Parasitologist. Teacher. Fascinated by how parasites interact with our immune system. Rational vaccine designer. Country boy and nature lover. 🏳️🌈
How do African trypanosomes regulate the complement system? Check out our new study from @BiochemCook, in which he identified a new trypanosome receptor which binds to the core C3bBb convertase of the complement system and blocks its activity. Real all about it! doi.org/10.64898/202...
August 20, 2026 at 7:55 PM
How do African trypanosomes regulate the complement system? Check out our new study from @BiochemCook, in which he identified a new trypanosome receptor which binds to the core C3bBb convertase of the complement system and blocks its activity. Real all about it! doi.org/10.64898/202...
Reposted by Matt Higgins
Scavenger receptor CD163 detoxes #hemoglobin (Hb) via haptoglobin–Hb (Hp-Hb) uptake, but can also bind free Hb directly. Richard Zhou & @parasitematt.bsky.social solve the CD163-Hb structure to reveal that CD163 arms allow receptor promiscuity when Hp is absent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4eOLuIv
May 15, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Scavenger receptor CD163 detoxes #hemoglobin (Hb) via haptoglobin–Hb (Hp-Hb) uptake, but can also bind free Hb directly. Richard Zhou & @parasitematt.bsky.social solve the CD163-Hb structure to reveal that CD163 arms allow receptor promiscuity when Hp is absent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4eOLuIv
Our latest study of the scavenger receptor CD163, led by Richard Zhou. This follows our previous study of how CD163 uses its remarkable molecular architecture to bind haptoglobin-haemoglobin. We now show how its flexible arms allow haemoglobin binding, revealing how ligand promiscuity works.
May 16, 2026 at 10:59 AM
Our latest study of the scavenger receptor CD163, led by Richard Zhou. This follows our previous study of how CD163 uses its remarkable molecular architecture to bind haptoglobin-haemoglobin. We now show how its flexible arms allow haemoglobin binding, revealing how ligand promiscuity works.
Reposted by Matt Higgins
Structure-guided design of a PfCyRPA-based #vaccine against blood-stage #malaria
➡️ doi.org/10.1038/s44321-026-00376-x
By N. Alam, @parasitematt.bsky.social and colleagues @ox.ac.uk @kavlioxford.bsky.social
➡️ doi.org/10.1038/s44321-026-00376-x
By N. Alam, @parasitematt.bsky.social and colleagues @ox.ac.uk @kavlioxford.bsky.social
March 3, 2026 at 8:04 PM
Structure-guided design of a PfCyRPA-based #vaccine against blood-stage #malaria
➡️ doi.org/10.1038/s44321-026-00376-x
By N. Alam, @parasitematt.bsky.social and colleagues @ox.ac.uk @kavlioxford.bsky.social
➡️ doi.org/10.1038/s44321-026-00376-x
By N. Alam, @parasitematt.bsky.social and colleagues @ox.ac.uk @kavlioxford.bsky.social
Introducing our new blood-stage malaria vaccine immunogen based on the essential invasion protein PfCyRPA. By understanding where on PfCyRPA the best antibodies bind, we used structure guided design to generate PfCyRPA-EM, which contains only the epitopes of the best antibodies.
March 3, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Introducing our new blood-stage malaria vaccine immunogen based on the essential invasion protein PfCyRPA. By understanding where on PfCyRPA the best antibodies bind, we used structure guided design to generate PfCyRPA-EM, which contains only the epitopes of the best antibodies.
Reposted by Matt Higgins
Excited about parasites? Love watching movies? Come join our Wellcome-funded project! Parasitology friends, please do share far and wide.
January 28, 2026 at 5:05 PM
Excited about parasites? Love watching movies? Come join our Wellcome-funded project! Parasitology friends, please do share far and wide.
We are very much looking forward to being @courbongautier.bsky.social’s new home!!
Congratulations to the new Doctor of Philosophy @courbongautier.bsky.social on a spectacular PhD defense following a groundbreaking PhD!
Thanks to external examiner Damian Ekiert from JHU and the rest of the examining committee.
Next stop, Oxford University for a postdoctoral fellowship.
🇫🇷🇨🇦🇬🇧
Thanks to external examiner Damian Ekiert from JHU and the rest of the examining committee.
Next stop, Oxford University for a postdoctoral fellowship.
🇫🇷🇨🇦🇬🇧
January 18, 2026 at 8:27 PM
We are very much looking forward to being @courbongautier.bsky.social’s new home!!
Check out our latest study on the PfRIPR protein,
essential for the malaria parasite to get inside our blood cells. We show how antibodies block the function of PfRIPR by preventing its flexible hinges from bending, or by stopping it from compacting as part of its mechanism.
essential for the malaria parasite to get inside our blood cells. We show how antibodies block the function of PfRIPR by preventing its flexible hinges from bending, or by stopping it from compacting as part of its mechanism.
January 18, 2026 at 6:21 PM
Check out our latest study on the PfRIPR protein,
essential for the malaria parasite to get inside our blood cells. We show how antibodies block the function of PfRIPR by preventing its flexible hinges from bending, or by stopping it from compacting as part of its mechanism.
essential for the malaria parasite to get inside our blood cells. We show how antibodies block the function of PfRIPR by preventing its flexible hinges from bending, or by stopping it from compacting as part of its mechanism.
Very proud!
Alex Cook @alexandercook.bsky.social in the Matt Higgins @parasitematt.bsky.social lab here @ox.ac.uk has been awarded a Wellcome Career Development Award to start his own laboratory @york.ac.uk . Congratulations Alex! We are delighted for your success but will be sad to see you go. 🏆🎉👏👏👏
Alex Cook awarded Wellcome Career Development Award
Dr Alex Cook has been awarded a Career Development Award to start his own laboratory at the University of York
bit.ly
November 10, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Very proud!
Delighted to review the latest findings on how malaria parasites get into our blood cells and how we might stop it!
New online! Erythrocyte invasion in malaria: from molecular mechanisms to rational vaccines
Erythrocyte invasion in malaria: from molecular mechanisms to rational vaccines
Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 15 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41579-025-01235-1If erythrocyte invasion is blocked during the blood stage of infection by Plasmodium parasites, malaria can be prevented. In this Review, structural insights on erythrocyte invasion by the merozoite form of Plasmodium are discussed in the context of rational design of a blood-stage malaria vaccine.
www.nature.com
September 16, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Delighted to review the latest findings on how malaria parasites get into our blood cells and how we might stop it!
Delighted to share our review on how those malaria parasites get into our blood cells and how we might stop them.
rdcu.be/eGnUl
rdcu.be/eGnUl
Erythrocyte invasion in malaria: from molecular mechanisms to rational vaccines
Nature Reviews Microbiology - If erythrocyte invasion is blocked during the blood stage of infection by Plasmodium parasites, malaria can be prevented. In this Review, structural insights on...
rdcu.be
September 15, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Delighted to share our review on how those malaria parasites get into our blood cells and how we might stop them.
rdcu.be/eGnUl
rdcu.be/eGnUl
The Higgins lab are proud to have received a Gold LEAF award, recognising our efforts to minimise the environmental impact of our research. Thanks to lab manager, Hannah Ivison, Alex Cook and to everyone in the lab for working on this together. More to do!
July 26, 2025 at 8:39 AM
The Higgins lab are proud to have received a Gold LEAF award, recognising our efforts to minimise the environmental impact of our research. Thanks to lab manager, Hannah Ivison, Alex Cook and to everyone in the lab for working on this together. More to do!
An exciting opportunity to start an independent position as a research fellow in protozoan parasitology at Christ's College, Cambridge and the Department of Pathology:
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52020/
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52020/
Research Fellow in Animal Protozoology (Fixed Term - 5 years) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Research Fellow in Animal Protozoology (Fixed Term - 5 years) in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
July 21, 2025 at 6:04 PM
An exciting opportunity to start an independent position as a research fellow in protozoan parasitology at Christ's College, Cambridge and the Department of Pathology:
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52020/
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52020/
Delighted to share the final version of Richard Zhou's study on how the CD163 scavenger receptor cleans up after toxic haemoglobin spills out from our blood cells. An amazing grabber mechanism!
rdcu.be/ewPA2
rdcu.be/ewPA2
July 18, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Delighted to share the final version of Richard Zhou's study on how the CD163 scavenger receptor cleans up after toxic haemoglobin spills out from our blood cells. An amazing grabber mechanism!
rdcu.be/ewPA2
rdcu.be/ewPA2
It was a huge privilege to start my research career at LMB. Hugely formative, giving the chance to interact with wonderful scientists, including pioneers of structural biology.
Congratulations to #LMBAlumni Matt Higgins (@parasitematt.bsky.social) and Clemens Plaschka on their election to @embo.org 🎉
Welcome and congratulations to the 60 new members and 9 associate members who have been elected to the EMBO Membership! This honour celebrates #research excellence and outstanding achievements in the #LifeSciences. 🧪
Learn more here:
www.embo.org/press-releas... #EMBOMembers2025
Learn more here:
www.embo.org/press-releas... #EMBOMembers2025
July 2, 2025 at 2:54 PM
It was a huge privilege to start my research career at LMB. Hugely formative, giving the chance to interact with wonderful scientists, including pioneers of structural biology.
Honoured to be elected an EMBO member. Looking forward to being part of this wonderful organisation that does so much for European science. Also thanks to Kavli Oxford for always using a picture which makes me look 20 years young. I own you guys!
Congratulations to #KavliOxford Professor Matt Higgins on his election to EMBO Membership for 2025! 🎉
kavli.web.ox.ac.uk/article/matt...
kavli.web.ox.ac.uk/article/matt...
Matt Higgins Elected to EMBO Membership for 2025
kavli.web.ox.ac.uk
July 1, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Honoured to be elected an EMBO member. Looking forward to being part of this wonderful organisation that does so much for European science. Also thanks to Kavli Oxford for always using a picture which makes me look 20 years young. I own you guys!
Thanks Kavli for highlighting @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social ‘s work with our wonderful collaborators, Shiroh and Hisashi. New insights into how activating KIR receptors might help fight malaria!
#TuesdayReads:
From Matt Higgins et al on how Plasmodium falciparum evades the immune system—revealing how PfEMP1 and RIFIN proteins help infected cells stick to tissues and escape immune attack. 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.mi...
From Matt Higgins et al on how Plasmodium falciparum evades the immune system—revealing how PfEMP1 and RIFIN proteins help infected cells stick to tissues and escape immune attack. 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.mi...
Redirecting
doi.org
July 1, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Thanks Kavli for highlighting @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social ‘s work with our wonderful collaborators, Shiroh and Hisashi. New insights into how activating KIR receptors might help fight malaria!
Reposted by Matt Higgins
Fantastic news! 👏👏👏
How the #malaria #parasite evades the immune system… and how the human body fights back: @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social and @parasitematt.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk make ground-breaking discovery, just published in @nature.com. Read more ⬇️
How the #malaria #parasite evades the immune system… and how the human body fights back: @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social and @parasitematt.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk make ground-breaking discovery, just published in @nature.com. Read more ⬇️
June 13, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Fantastic news! 👏👏👏
How the #malaria #parasite evades the immune system… and how the human body fights back: @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social and @parasitematt.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk make ground-breaking discovery, just published in @nature.com. Read more ⬇️
How the #malaria #parasite evades the immune system… and how the human body fights back: @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social and @parasitematt.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk make ground-breaking discovery, just published in @nature.com. Read more ⬇️
Our latest story describes the amazing evolutionary battle between malaria parasite and human. The parasite evolved RIFINs to bind inhibitory KIR receptors and suppress immune cell function while humans have activating KIR receptors to bind these RIFINs to kill parasites!
June 13, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Our latest story describes the amazing evolutionary battle between malaria parasite and human. The parasite evolved RIFINs to bind inhibitory KIR receptors and suppress immune cell function while humans have activating KIR receptors to bind these RIFINs to kill parasites!
Reposted by Matt Higgins
Extremely happy to share the first paper of my postdoc work with @parasitematt.
It is the product of a great collaboration with Akihito Sakoguchi, Hisashi Arase and Shiroh Iwanaga at Osaka University as well as Marcus Widdess and Mike Dustin here in Oxford.
rdcu.be/eqx2J
🧵 1/6
It is the product of a great collaboration with Akihito Sakoguchi, Hisashi Arase and Shiroh Iwanaga at Osaka University as well as Marcus Widdess and Mike Dustin here in Oxford.
rdcu.be/eqx2J
🧵 1/6
June 12, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Extremely happy to share the first paper of my postdoc work with @parasitematt.
It is the product of a great collaboration with Akihito Sakoguchi, Hisashi Arase and Shiroh Iwanaga at Osaka University as well as Marcus Widdess and Mike Dustin here in Oxford.
rdcu.be/eqx2J
🧵 1/6
It is the product of a great collaboration with Akihito Sakoguchi, Hisashi Arase and Shiroh Iwanaga at Osaka University as well as Marcus Widdess and Mike Dustin here in Oxford.
rdcu.be/eqx2J
🧵 1/6
Looking for a fully-funded D. Phil. / Ph.D. studentship in structural biology and vaccinology? Come to join our team. Fully and generously funded by a donation from the Kyner-Field family with full fees at overseas level. Join us!
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships
June 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Looking for a fully-funded D. Phil. / Ph.D. studentship in structural biology and vaccinology? Come to join our team. Fully and generously funded by a donation from the Kyner-Field family with full fees at overseas level. Join us!
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships
Nawsad presented our structure-guided design of RH5top, our latest blood stage-malaria vaccine immunogen, in talk and poster at the Malaria Gordon conference. The culmination of many studies from the lab and collaborators and doing well in pre-clinical testing! More soon.
June 1, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Nawsad presented our structure-guided design of RH5top, our latest blood stage-malaria vaccine immunogen, in talk and poster at the Malaria Gordon conference. The culmination of many studies from the lab and collaborators and doing well in pre-clinical testing! More soon.
Reposted by Matt Higgins
Pleased to share our review on two key families of proteins in the 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 arsenal: pfEMP1 and RIFINs. Both of these fascinating families facilitate immune evasion and survival within the human host during a malaria infection.
Read here:
kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
Read here:
kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me
March 20, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Pleased to share our review on two key families of proteins in the 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮 arsenal: pfEMP1 and RIFINs. Both of these fascinating families facilitate immune evasion and survival within the human host during a malaria infection.
Read here:
kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
Read here:
kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
Sam, Shiroh and I wrote a review about the latest on the surface proteins of infected-erythrocytes in malaria. PfEMP1, RIFINs, weird antibodies and immune manipulation. Check it out here:
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
authors.elsevier.com
March 19, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Sam, Shiroh and I wrote a review about the latest on the surface proteins of infected-erythrocytes in malaria. PfEMP1, RIFINs, weird antibodies and immune manipulation. Check it out here:
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
The symposium to celebrate Mark Carrington's career is coming soon. You have until 15th to book in. A great day of science, particularly if you are excited about kinetoplastids! And a day of celebration.
March 9, 2025 at 12:18 PM
The symposium to celebrate Mark Carrington's career is coming soon. You have until 15th to book in. A great day of science, particularly if you are excited about kinetoplastids! And a day of celebration.