Professor Keith Matthews’ research has centered on parasite biology, with a focus on African trypanosomes. These extracellular protozoan parasites cause fatal human African sleeping sickness and the livestock disease ’nagana’, responsible for significant economic hardship in sub-Saharan Africa. His research has addressed fundamental problems in trypanosome biology, particularly how the parasites communicate with one another to optimize their survival and transmission and how they detect environmental signals in blood and tsetse flies to ensure life-cycle progression.

Keith did PhD research at the University of Glasgow and postdoctoral work at Yale University USA and the University of Manchester. He Directed the Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution and is currently Professor of Parasite Biology and Dean of Bioscience Partnerships at the University of Edinburgh. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2014 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018. He has received the British Society for Parasitology C. A. Wright medal (2008) and the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur International research award for tropical and neglected diseases (2015).