Prof Peter Brophy

PhD

Prof Peter Brophy

Professor

IBERS

Contact Details

Profile

Studied biochemistry at Glasgow and Stirling Universities before obtaining a PhD from Aberystwyth University on drug metabolism in parasitic worms. After holding a Medical Research Council research post at Aberystwyth (1987-1990) completed further research training in yeast biotechnology at the BioCentre in Leicester. In 1991 was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship based at Nottingham University exploring parasite defences against immune assault. A Senior Research Fellowship in the Leicester Pharmacy School (1994-97) provided opportunities in rational drug design and lead compound synthesis. Established the first proteomics laboratory dedicated to parasitic worm investigations during Readerships at the Universities of Aberystwyth and Liverpool (1998-2006). In 2007 returned to Aberystwyth as a Professor in Parasitology. During  career has been an advisor in parasite drug discovery to WHO and has completed a number of industrial consultancies. To date, has supervised 20 PhD students and published a 100 plus research papers/books/chapters on parasitology, including the first experimental proteomics study in a parasitic worm and  resolved one of the first structures of a parasitic worm drug target.  Has held a number of research contracts to address  key problems in parasite control (anthelmintic resistance, vaccine, drug  and biomarker discovery).

Teaching

Module Coordinator
Lecturer
Coordinator
Moderator
Grader
Tutor

Research

My main research interest is to resolve using functional genomics how liver and rumen fluke parasites interact with their respective host environments. To date, new parasite proteins have been discovered to support drug and vaccine development and diagnostics . I am also interested in developing new molecular tools to measure anthelmintic resistance in liver fluke and a protein biomarker panel has been identified to measure Triclabendazole (TCBZ) failure and resistance for new laboratory and faecal based field tests.

Publications

Pawluk, R, Stuart, R, Garcia de Leaniz, C, Cable, J, Morphew, R, Brophy, P & Consuegra, S 2019, 'Smell of Infection: a novel, non-invasive method for detection of fish excretory- secretory proteins' Journal of Proteome Research, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 1371-1379. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.8b00953
Davis, C, Phillips, H, Tomes, J, Swain, M, Wilkinson, T, Brophy, P & Morphew, R 2019, 'The importance of extracellular vesicle purification for downstream analysis: A comparison of differential centrifugation and size exclusion chromatography for helminth pathogens' PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, vol. 13, no. 2, e0007191. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0007191
Line, K, Isupov, MN, LaCourse, EJ, Cutress, D, Morphew, R, Brophy, P & Littlechild, JA 2019, 'X-ray structure of Fasciola hepatica Sigma class glutathione transferase 1 reveals a disulfide bond to support stability in gastro-intestinal environment' Scientific Reports, vol. 9, 902. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-37531-5
Jones, R, Brophy, P, Davis, C, Davies, T, Emberson, H, Rees Stevens, P & Williams, H 2018, 'Detection of Galba truncatula, Fasciola hepatica and Calicophoron daubneyi environmental DNA within water sources on pasture land, a future tool for fluke control?' Parasites & Vectors, vol. 11, 342. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-018-2928-z
Perner, J, Kotál, J, Hatalová , T, Urbanová , V, Bartošová-Sojková, P, Brophy, P & Kopáček, P 2018, 'Inducible glutathione S-transferase (IrGST1) from the tick Ixodes ricinus is a haem-binding protein' Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, vol. 95, pp. 44-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibmb.2018.02.002
More publications on the Research Portal