Professor Catherine Merrick

  • Professor of Parasitology
  • Division of Microbiology and Parasitology
Available to supervise doctoral students
Available for consultancy
Professor Catherine Merrick

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About

My first degree was in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, during which time I also participated in the Cold Spring Harbor undergraduate research program in the USA.  I then completed a PhD in Cell Biology at Cancer Research UK, before moving to the Harvard School of Public Health where I held a Charles H. Hood postdoctoral fellowship and studied the epigenetic control of virulence genes in malaria parasites.  During my postdoc I also conducted a field study at the MRC Institute in The Gambia, investigating clinical phenotypes and the expression of virulence genes in patients with malaria. 

Upon returning to the UK I worked briefly as a sub-editor at Nature, then joined the faculty at Keele University where I was a Lecturer and subsequently a Senior Lecturer until spring of 2018.  At Keele I established a research group within the Centre for Applied Entomology and Parasitology (CAEP), gained my Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  I taught undergraduate and graduate courses in parasitology and other areas and was awarded a 'superb supervisor' teaching award by the SU.  I sat on the Council of the British Society for Parasitology from 2012 to 2018, serving as the Hon. Communications Secretary 2015-2018. 

In 2018 I moved to Cambridge as an Associate Professor, and in 2024 I became Professor of Parasitology.  At Cambridge I organise the Part II (third year) course in host-pathogen interactions; I teach both undergraduates and graduate (MPhil and PhD) students, and I was the Postgraduate Education Director for the Pathology department 2023-2025.  My research group has been funded by the ERC, MRC, BBSRC and Rosetrees Trust, amongst others, and we are currently funded by a Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust. 

In the 2025 academic year, I am taking a research sabbatical and will not be engaged in undergraduate teaching.

Research

My group studies the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.  Research interests are centred around DNA biology, particularly the molecular mechanisms underlying DNA replication and cell cycle control in Plasmodium, which replicates by an unusual method called schizogony.  We have studied this at both the single-cell and single-molecule levels, producing the first genome-wide maps of replication origins and replication fork activity in both P. falciparum and P. knowlesi.  We are particularly interested in cell-cycle checkpoint control in Plasmodium.

I am also interested in epigenetics, including the roles that G-quadruplex DNA and RNA structures may play in the parasite - for example, in silencing and promoting the recombination of key virulence genes called var genes, whose variant expression is under epigenetic control.  In fact, we have discovered that G-quadruplexes and their helicases have more general roles in genome stability/evolution in the malaria parasite, as well as influencing transcript expression at the RNA level. 

I also have a long-standing interest in classical epigenetics: we are currently studying the novel phenomenon of histone lactylation in Plasmodium.  This project follows on from my postdoctoral work, which focussed on a group of deacetylase enzymes called sirtuins. These regulate subtelomeric chromatin and virulence gene expression - which in turn correlate with hyperlactataemia and severe malarial disease in human patients.  We are now investigating histone lactylation as novel axis of host-parasite signalling. 

Alongside our research, we are actively involved in science communication, including school visits, media interviews and participation in the annual Cambridge Festival.  A recent podcast interview about our ERC-funded research is found here, and a recent public engagement project is featured on a website here, or as a podcast here: 'We Shall Not Cease From Exploration - The Poetry of Research'. 

 Merrick lab news and events

2026:

Feb: Prof Merrick has been invited to serve as the General Secretary to the council of the British Society for Parasitology (BSP).  She will take up the role after this year's spring meeting of the BSP in Glasgow.  

2025:

Nov: This month, Prof Merrick has been working at the MRC unit in The Gambia.  A Royal Society International Exchange grant recently awarded to Prof Merrick in Cambridge and Prof Amambua-Ngwa in The Gambia has enabled a new pilot project to study epigenetics in human patient isolates of the malaria parasite P. falciparum.  While in The Gambia, Prof Merrick delivered a seminar on the new project, met with ex-students and postdocs, as well as acquaintances made 16 years ago on her first research visit to The Gambia (Keele & Cambridge student & postdoc Dr Mbye; long-standing culture wizard Simon Correa; Prof Ngwa himself)... and ate a lot of Gambian groundnuts!

Aug: It's always a pleasure to attend the annual BioMalPar conference, and even more so to chair a session at one of Europe's leading malaria events.  See this year's meeting report from the chairs published in Trends in Parasitology here: 'BioMalPar at 21 – a coming of age for malaria research and interventions.’

Jul: A big thank you to all the lab's staff - Jemima Bittor, Nana Andoh, Ibtissam Jabre and Cas Boshoven - who have been giving up their time to students visiting the lab for work-shadowing experiences.  Led by Ibtissam and Nana, the lab has hosted a series of students from local schools this summer.

May: A warm welcome to Cas Boshoven and Jemima Bittor, who join us in new postdoc and technician positions respectively.  They replace Dr.s Jatou Mbye and Juliana Naldoni, who have moved on to postdocs at the MRC unit in The Gambia and the Waller lab (Cambridge Biochem Dept) respectively.  Cas and Jemima will take up work on our Wellcome-funded project studying histone lactylation.

Apr: Congratulations to Blessing Abodunrin, who has been awarded a highly-coveted Gates Scholarship for her PhD at Cambridge.  In October 2025, she will be joining the Merrick lab after completing a Masters at Covenant University in Nigeria.

Feb: This month, Prof Merrick is on the podcast about EU-funded research 'CORDIScovery'. It's one of the top three most listened-to EC podcasts across all platforms, with 22,000 ‘listens’ in 2024. Check out what European researchers are doing about malaria here.

Please contact me by email if you are interested in PhD or postdoctoral work in my group.  If funded positions are available, they will be advertised here, otherwise I am happy to discuss possible projects for fellowship applications with qualified candidates. 

Current lab members:

  • Dr Ibtissam Jabre, postdoc, from Feb 2023
  • Dr Nana Efua Andoh, postdoc, from Feb 2023
  • Dr Cas Boshoven, postdoc, from May 2025
  • Jemima Bittor, technician, from May 2025
  • Megan Armstrong, PhD student, 2022-2026
  • Blessing Abodunrin, PhD student (Gates Cambridge scholarship), 2025-2029

Lab retreat at Anglesey Abbey, 2021;  Lab lunch 2024

Previous lab members:

  • Technicians
  • Dr Juliana Naldoni, 2023-2025 (subsequently postdoc, Cambridge Biochemistry Dept.) 
  • Dr Rachana Ramarao, 2021-2023 (subsequently technician, Cambridge Biochemistry Dept.)
  • Anders Jensen, 2018-2021 (subsequently deputy lab manager, Cambridge Pathology Dept.)
  • Dr Lisa Rump, 2017-2018
  • PhD students
  • Dr Monique Johnson, 2020-2024 (subsequently postdoc at Umea University, Sweden)
  • Dr Linda Onyeka Anagu, 2015-2019 (secondment from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria, subsequently AREF postdoc fellow)
  • Dr Ashley J. Jordan, 2012-2016 (subsequently postdoc at Institut Laue-Langevin Grenoble)
  • Masters students
  • Cambridge:
  • 2024-2025: Alexandra Mwinbong, Mastercard MPhil
  • 2024-2025: Inaya Khan, IBaMI programme MPhil
  • 2024: Benoit Derneden, Erasmus MPhil placement from U. Louvain, Belgium (subsequently PhD student at U. Louvain, Belgium)
  • 2022-2023: Lewis Strachan, MPhil (subsequently PhD student at CIMR)
  • 2019-2020: Louise DeThomasson, MPhil (subsequently technical officer at Viapath)
  • (Keele, 2012-17):
  • 6 MSc students on programmes including MSc in Molecular Parasitology and Vector Biology, MSc in Scientific Research Training abroad, and Erasmus.  3 students (Adriana Adolfi, Rinal Sahputra & Pamela Veneziano-Broccia) progressed to PhDs at LSTM, Manchester and Trieste.
  • 1 MPhil, Dr Katelyn Monsell - intercalated year in research during medical training at Keele Medical School.
  • Undergraduates
  • Cambridge:
  • 2024-25: Luke John (Medical degree 2025)
  • 2023-24: Nelly Wolman (Natural Sciences degree 2024, subsequently MPhil student at Cambridge)
  • 2022-23: Emmie Savory (Medical degree 2023)
  • 2021-22: Kate Tilley (Natural Sciences project student);  Jemima Bittor ('Experience Postgrad' summer student 2022, subsequently MPhil student at Cambridge, then technician in Merrick lab)
  • 2020-21: Daniel Nash (Pathology Society scholarship summer student, 2021, subsequently PhD student at Cambridge)
  • 2019-20: Christopher Cannon (Natural Sciences degree 2020, subsequently PhD student at Nottingham)
  • 2018-19: Lydia Roberts (Medical degree 2019);  Hunter Gage (U. Madison SCORE programme summer student; subsequently Medical school at UCSD)
  • Keele (2011-2017):
  • 20 undergraduate students, including 4 progressing to PhD/MSc degrees.

Teaching and supervision

Available to supervise doctoral students

I lead the Host-pathogen interactions module in the Part II (third year undergraduate) Pathology course.  I host undergraduate research projects annually in this option, and also take Masters and PhD students.