Dr. Pegine Walrad is an Associate Professor in the York Biomedical Research Institute at the Univ. of York. A recognised leader in parasite genetics, she investigates genetic regulators that promote microbial virulence. Previous work isolated and characterized Runx transcription in Drosophila as well as the first trans-regulator of surface antigens and a novel pathway of mRNA export in Trypanosoma brucei parasites. Current research focuses on gene pathways that control Leishmania differentiation to human-infectious forms. Toward this, her lab quantitatively identified the RNA binding and whole cell proteomes of L. mexicana, identified 18 RBPs essential to mammalian infection are actively mapping molecular interaction dynamics of key trans-regulatory RNP complexes.