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Alex Cook

@alexandercook.bsky.social
89 followers 102 following 4 posts

Postdoc at Biochemistry, Oxford. Wanting to know how trypanosome parasites outsmart their host. Imaging wildlife in the lab or the wilderness.

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Alex Cook @alexandercook.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Excited to share a new preprint: we've discovered a new complement system inhibitor on the African trypanosome surface! It traps the short-lived C3 convertase in a catalytically inactive state. It was a fun journey discovering and characterising this protein! Read it here: doi.org/10.64898/202...
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Reposted by Alex Cook
Faria Tryps Lab @fariatrypslab.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
(1/7) How does T. brucei achieve a 140-fold stoichiometric excess of VSG mRNA over upstream ESAGs from a single polycistronic unit? Our latest research in @natmicrobiol.nature.com reveals a mechanism of spatially regulated RNA decay to fine-tune expression of virulence genes
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Alex Cook @alexandercook.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
This is very exciting! www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
‘Truly spectacular’ drug for sleeping sickness simplifies treatment, raising hopes for eradication
European regulators greenlight new one-dose compound that could help African countries get rid of an ancient burden
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Reposted by Alex Cook
Matt Higgins @parasitematt.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Introducing our new blood-stage malaria vaccine immunogen based on the essential invasion protein PfCyRPA. By understanding where on PfCyRPA the best antibodies bind, we used structure guided design to generate PfCyRPA-EM, which contains only the epitopes of the best antibodies.
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Alex Cook @alexandercook.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Great to see this paper from Sourav and the Carrington Lab out! Receptors are not hiding as much in the African trypanosome flagella pocket as previously thought. In @elife.bsky.social: Cell surface localisation of GPI-anchored receptors in Trypanosoma brucei doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
doi.org
Cell surface localisation of GPI-anchored receptors in Trypanosoma brucei
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Reposted by Alex Cook
Matt Higgins @parasitematt.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Delighted to share the final version of Richard Zhou's study on how the CD163 scavenger receptor cleans up after toxic haemoglobin spills out from our blood cells. An amazing grabber mechanism! rdcu.be/ewPA2
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Reposted by Alex Cook
Sam Chamberlain @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Extremely happy to share the first paper of my postdoc work with @parasitematt. It is the product of a great collaboration with Akihito Sakoguchi, Hisashi Arase and Shiroh Iwanaga at Osaka University as well as Marcus Widdess and Mike Dustin here in Oxford. rdcu.be/eqx2J 🧵 1/6
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