Elected: 2020
Discipline: Cell and Molecular Biology
Professor Alex Rowe
Professor of Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh
Professor Alex Rowe is a malaria expert who trained in medicine (University of Sheffield) and parasite biology (University of Oxford; National Institutes of Health, USA) before moving to Edinburgh as a research fellow, becoming Chair of Molecular Medicine in 2009. Throughout her career, she has worked closely with scientists from malaria-endemic countries including Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Mali and Uganda. She is known for identifying human genetic factors such as blood group types that influence susceptibility to life-threatening malaria, and for identifying parasite virulence factors that are potential targets for new drugs or vaccines.