I am delighted to announce that Dr Bridget Penman has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences, and will be a strong member of WIDER.

Bridget will start work with us on 1st September 2016. She describes her research as "I am currently working on two main projects. The first is concerned with malaria protective haemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell anaemia and the thalassaemias. I am investigating the processes that could have led to the current global distribution of these genes, and relating this to the mechanisms underlying the malaria protection they offer. The second project focusses on the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) and Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR) gene families, which encode vital components of the human immune system. I am using mathematical models to investigate the consequences of interactions between these genes for human health and evolution."