Dr Eleanor Cull BSc, MSc, PhD

School of Biosciences
Assistant Professor in Human Biology

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 5574
Email: e.cull@bham.ac.uk
Twitter: @DrEHCull

Address: W126, School of Biosciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Eleanor Cull is an experienced parasitologist and has worked on gene regulation and metabolism in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and host cell invasion in Toxoplasma gondii.

Her main academic interests are in molecular biology and its application in investigating human health and disease.

One of her other interests is innovative teaching techniques. With a unique perspective on education, having taught at both secondary school and university level, she is interested in student transition from school to university, and how teaching and learning tools can be used successfully in higher education.”

Qualifications

PGCE in Secondary Science (University of Southampton)
PhD in Molecular Biology (Keele University)
MSc in Molecular Biology of Infectious Diseases (LSHTM)
BSc in Medical Biology (Brunel University)

Biography

Dr Eleanor Cull completed her PhD on Gene regulation in the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum at Keele University. She subsequently worked at Glasgow University investigating P. falciparum parasite specific metabolism and how the biology and physiology of the parasite affect their survival during the intraerythrocytic cycle. She then investigated invasion of the host cell by apicomplexan parasites, including P. falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii parasites.

Eleanor moved to focus on her teaching skills and briefly retrained as a secondary school teacher, teaching secondary science in Dorset and Gloucestershire schools before her appointment at the University of Birmingham as a Human Biology Lecturer. She is currently the programme lead for the Human Biology BSc Degree.

Teaching

Dr Eleanor Cull teaches on a number of modules in the school of Biosciences including:

Foundation level:
BIA Organismal Biology

Year 1:
Cell Biology & Physiology
Human Biochemistry

Year 2:
Human Structure and Function

Year 3:
Human Health and Disease

Research

Dr Eleanor Cull is interested in the development of teaching and learning in higher education

Publications

Pieperhoff MS, Pall GS, Jiménez-Ruiz E, Das S, Melatti C, Gow M, Wong E.H., Heng J, Müller S, Blackman MJ, Meissner M. (2015) Conditional U1 Gene Silencing in Toxoplasma gondii. PLoS One. 10(6): e0130356.

Jiménez-Ruiz, E., Wong, E.H., Pall, G.S., and Meissner, M. (2014) Advantages and disadvantages of conditional systems for characterization of essential genes in Toxoplasma gondii. Parasitology. 141(11). pp. 1390-1398

Collins, C.R., Das, S., Wong, E.H., Andenmatten, N., Stallmach, R., Hackett, F., Herman, J-P., Muller, S., Meissner, M., and Blackman, M.J. (2013) Robust inducible Cre recombinase activity in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum enables efficient gene deletion within a single asexual erythrocytic growth cycle. Molecular Microbiology, 88 (4). pp. 687-701.

Patzewitz, E.-M., Salcedo-SoraJ, E., Wong, E.H., Sethia, S., Stocks, P.A., Maughan, S.C., Murray, J.A.H., Krishna, S., Bray, P.G., Ward, S.A., and Müller, S. (2013) Glutathione transport: a new role for PfCRT in chloroquine resistance. Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, 19 (7). pp. 683-695.

Hasenkamp, S., Wong, E.H., and Horrocks, P. (2012) An improved single-step lysis protocol to measure luciferase bioluminescence in Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria Journal, 11 (42).

Patzewitz, E.-M., Wong, E.H., and Muller, S. (2012) Dissecting the role of glutathione biosynthesis in Plasmodium falciparum. Molecular Microbiology, 83 (2). pp. 304-318.

Wong, E.H., Hasenkamp, S., and Horrocks, P. (2011) Analysis of the molecular mechanisms governing the stage-specific expression of a prototypical housekeeping gene during intraerythrocytic development of P. falciparum. Journal of Molecular Biology, 408 (2). pp. 205-221.

Horrocks, P., Wong, E., Russell, K., Emes, RD. (2009) Control of gene expression in Plasmodium falciparum - ten years on. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol 164(1) pg9-25