Mojca Kristan studied Biology (BSc) at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and obtained an MSc in the Biology and Control of Disease Vectors at LSHTM in 2001. After her Masters she worked at the School as an entomology research technician as part of the Gates Malaria Partnership program. She was involved in work on malaria transmission and in the research within the Highland Malaria Project (HIMAL) on malaria epidemic early warning and detection systems in the highlands of Kenya and Uganda.
She has re-joined the School in 2012 as a Research Fellow, working on a collaborative project with Malaria Consortium, to study the impact of various control measures on malaria transmission from the perspective of vector-parasite interactions. Mojca joined Dr Thomas Walker's group after submitting her PhD to work on the use of FTA cards for detection of sporozoites during sugar feeding of mosquitoes. She then worked with Dr Walker and Dr Matt Rogers on the use of FTA cards for detection of Leishmania parasites in infective phlebotomine sand flies, with a potential to develop a simple and effective tool for monitoring of leishmaniasis transmission in the field. This led to her joining the SPEAK India project, working with Prof Mary Cameron and Prof Susana Campino, working on multiplex point-of-need rapid tests for detection of DNA and RNA of different pathogens in arthropods.
Mojca is currently involved in several projects, where she continues to work on vector control and surveillance, transmission of malaria and other vector-borne diseases, and parasite-vector interactions:
- as a scientist-in-charge of the Human Malaria Transmission Facility, led by Prof Colin Sutherland;
- as an entomologist on the RAFT Research Programme Consortium, lead by Prof Sian Clarke and Prof Jo Lines, focusing on Aedes vectors of arboviruses and arboviral disease outbreaks in Africa as well as developing eDNA approaches for entomological surveillance;
- providing entomological expertise for the project "Genomic epidemiology tools for the surveillance of vector-borne diseases network: applied to tick species, reservoirs and pathogens", working with Prof Susana Campino and her team, and colleagues at UKHSA;
- providing entomological expertise on an UKHSA-LSHTM project on Tahyna virus transmission by Aedes vexans, a project led by Prof Roger Hewson.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Mojca is a co-organiser of the Malaria: from science to policy and practice study module (3195). She provides teaching support during various entomology practicals and student projects, and lectures on Core Parasitology and Entomology (3122), Introduction to disease agents and their control (3125 IDAC), Vector sampling, identification & incrimination (3141), Vector biology & vector - parasite interactions (3166), and Integrated vector management (3176) modules. She is a tutor on the MSc Medical Parasitology course.
Research
My research interests include studies of vectors of malaria and other diseases, vector-parasite interactions, evaluation of the impact of vector control interventions and environmental change on transmission, and new tools and approaches for vector surveillance.
Selected Publications
