Plasmodium, the parasite carried by mosquitos which causes malaria, invading gut epithelium. (Wikipedia)

Epidemiology

I have recently joined the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, working in the Epidemiology and Public Health department.

Anopheles gambiae mosquito, the most important vector of malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa (courtesy of Wikipedia)

There I will be working on the modelling of malaria transmission and the effectiveness of various intervention strategies.  If you are interested in learning more, take a look at the website of the OpenMalaria project - not only is it an open-source project you can contribute to, you can also volunteer the spare processing power of your computer to help run simulations of malaria infections.

“This leads to the paradox, that because the disease is only in the poor countries, there is not much investment. For example, there is more money put into baldness drugs, than are put into malaria. Now, baldness, it is a terrible thing [audience laughter] and rich men are afflicted, so that is why that priority is set.”
— Bill Gates, TED talk, 2009
Malaria incidence map: click for details (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Malaria incidence map: click for details (courtesy of Wikipedia)