Olivia Pilling
in Team
Olivia is a PhD student in the lab and is a member of the Microbiology, Virology and Parasitology (MVP) Graduate group. Olivia’s project is focused on the development of genomic methods to study the skin-dwelling parasite, Leishmania braziliensis. In her first paper, she successful developed Selective Whole Genome Amplification (SWGA) for Leishmania species. This work constitutes a breakthrough for the leishmania research field since it allows researchers to amplify whole Leishmania genomes directly from patient material to carry out population genetic studies of this important pathogen, without the need to culture or enrich parasites. She continues to use SWGA to study the population genetics of Leishmania braziliensis across South America.
