£2.1 million Wellcome Investigator award for Dundee scientist

Professor Horn will receive the five year grant to study mechanisms that the Trypanosoma brucei parasite, and other trypanosomatid parasites, use to express virulence genes and adapt and survive in the hostile environments they encounter during their life cycles in insect and mammalian hosts.

Professor Horn said, “I am hugely grateful to the Wellcome Trust, who have supported my research now for more than 20 years. I am also hugely proud of the achievements and successes of group members and other colleagues in recent years that helped to make this application successful; I consider myself very fortunate to be working with these people in Dundee.”

Professor Julian Blow, Dean of the School of Life Sciences, said “We have a long and proud record of working with Wellcome and turning their support into research that has a real impact in understanding, and ultimately treating, human and animal diseases.”

David received his first Wellcome Investigator Award on moving to Dundee in 2013. This provided a level of support and flexibility that allowed the team to develop projects with greater potential impact. Synergies with colleagues in the Mode-of-Action team and in the The Wellcome Trust Centre for Anti-Infectives Research have substantially facilitated the application of new discoveries and technologies to advancing drug discovery efforts here in Dundee.