Wendy Gibson Explained

Wendy Gibson is Professor of Protozoology at University of Bristol, specialising in trypanosomes and molecular parasitology.

Career

Wendy C. Gibson studied B. Sc. Zoology at University College London, UK graduating in 1975^[1] followed by a doctorate at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine that was awarded in 1979. She continued to work there with Wallace Peters for a short time after her doctorate.^[2] She was awarded DSc by the University of London in 1997.

In 1997 she was appointed as a member of academic staff at University of Bristol, UK and was later promoted to professor.

Her research on trypanosomes started during her PhD and included fieldwork in Liberia. She subsequently gained greater knowledge of African trypanosomiasis during four years at the Kenya Trypanosomiasis Research Institute. Later in her career she developed expertise in molecular biology technologies through spending two years at the Netherlands Cancer Institute collaborating with Piet Borst.

Gibson's career has focused on the parasites of the genus Trypanosoma, especially Trypanosoma brucei that causes the disease African trypanosomiasis in humans, otherwise known as sleeping sickness. She has applied a wide range of technologies for determining identification and diversity, including morphology, genetics, proteins, molecular biology and genomic data. To better understand the life of trypanosomes within its host insect vector, the tsetse fly, she developed methodology based on reporter genes for fluorescent proteins that allows trypanosomes to be visualised readily within the fly's cells using microscopy.^[3] Further development allowed details of genetic recombination during sexual reproduction of T. brucei within its tsetse fly host to be identified.^[4]

Gibson has also studied of the interactions of trypanosomes within domestic animals that result in disease. One of these was T. congolense where her methods using fluorescent protein markers allowed the details of its sexual reproduction to be identified.^[5] Other collaborations include with veterinary scientists about the presence of trypanosomes in pet dogs in Nigeria.^[6]

She was a member of the consortium that provided the first genome sequence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense^{[7] [8]} and T. grayi, a parasite of crocodiles.^[9]

She has participated in public discussions about parasites, including in the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our time in 2017.^[10]

Gibson was Vice President and then President of British Society for Protist Biology from 2006 until 2011.

Publications

Gibson is the author or co-author of over 100 scientific publications and book chapters. These include:

• Peacock, Lori; Bailey, Mick; Carrington, Mark; Gibson, Wendy) (2014) Meiosis and Haploid Gametes in the Pathogen Trypanosoma brucei. Current Biology 24 181-186
• Jackson, Andrew P. ; Sanders, Mandy); Berry, Andrew; McQuillan, Jacqueline; and 10 other authors including Gibson, Wendy; Barry, David; Berriman, Matthew); and Hertz-Fowler, Christiane (2010) The Genome Sequence of Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, Causative Agent of Chronic Human African Trypanosomiasis. PLOS Neglected Tropical Disease 4 Article Number e658
• Hamilton, Patrick B.; Gibson, Wendy C.; Stevens, Jamie R. (2007) Patterns of co-evolution between trypanosomes and their hosts deduced from ribosomal RNA and protein-coding gene phylogenies. Molecular Phylogenies and Evolution 44 15-25

Awards

In 1995 Gibson was awarded the third Albert Dubois prize for Tropical Pathology from the Belgian Academy of Medicine for work on genetic exchange in trypanosomes.^[11]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Professor Wendy Gibson . University of Bristol . 24 December 2020.
2. Book: 50 Years of the Wellcome Trust 1936 - 1986 . 1987 . The Wellcome Trust . 1-869835-01-8 . 139.
3. Peacock . Lori . Ferris . Vanessa . Bailey . Mick . Gibson . Wendy . Dynamics of infection and competition between two strains of Trypanosoma brucei brucei in the tsetse fly observed using fluorescent markers. . Kinetoplastid Biol Dis . 2007 . 6 . 4 . 4 . 10.1186/1475-9292-6-4 . 17553128. 1899512 . free .
4. Peacock . Lori . Ferris . Vanessa . Sharma . Reuben . Sunter . Jack . Bailey . Mick . Carrington . Mark . Gibson . Wendy . Identification of the meiotic life cycle stage of Trypanosoma brucei in the tsetse fly . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 2011 . 108 . 9 . 3671–3676 . 10.1073/pnas.1019423108 . 21321215 . 3048101 . 2011PNAS..108.3671P . free .
5. Web site: Sexual reproduction in the livestock pathogen Trypanosoma congolense . UK Research and Innovation . 25 December 2020.
6. Web site: Hidden danger from pet dogs in Africa . My Science . 29 May 2020 . 24 December 2020.
7. Web site: Trypanosoma brucei . Wellcome Sanger Institute . 25 December 2020.
8. Jackson . Andrew . Sanders . Mandy . Including Wendy Gibson . and 12 other authors . The Genome Sequence of T. brucei gambiense, Causative Agent of Chronic Human African Trypanosomiasis . PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases . 2010 . 4 . 4 . e658 . 10.1371/journal.pntd.0000658. 20404998 . 2854126 . free .
9. Kelly . Steven . Ivens . Alasdair . Manna . Paul T. . Gibson . Wendy . Field . Mark C. . A draft genome for the African crocodilian trypanosome Trypanosoma grayi . Scientific Data . 2014 . 1 . 140024 . 10.1038/sdata.2014.24 . 25977781 . 4322581 . free .
10. Web site: Bragg . Melvyn . in Our Time: Parasitism . BBC Radio 4 . 23 December 2020.
11. Web site: Résumé Wendy Gibson (Séance du 10 février 1996 – Mémoires couronnés) GENETIC EXCHANGE IN TRYPANOSOMES par W. GIBSON, lauréate du « Prix du Dr Albert Dubois pour la Pathologie tropicale » (période 1990-1994). . Académie royale de Médecine de Belgique . 25 December 2020.