Dr Britta Urban

Reader and Director of Post-Graduate Research

Dr Britta Urban obtained her PhD at the University of Hamburg, Germany studying complement resistance in Entamoeba histolytica. In 1997, she joined Oxford University to investigate cellular immune responses to Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage malaria. She was awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship in 2006 and moved to the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya to analyse immune responses to the major variant surface antigen expressed on infected erythrocytes, the P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1). In 2011, Dr. Urban returned to the UK and is now based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine investigating cross-reactive T and B cell responses to PfEMP1. Her team continues to work on various aspects of cellular immunity to malaria and other infectious diseases.

PhD Students

Hisham Alharbi
Abdulwahab Khashab
Victoria Austin
Katerina Cheliotis

Britta teaches on the MSc Tropical and Infectious Disease

Recent publications: 

    Selected publications

    • Muema, D.M, Macharia, G.N., Hassan, A.S., Mwaringa, S.M., Fegan, G.W., Berkley, J.A., Nduati, E.W., Urban, B.C. 2015. Control of viraemia enables acquisition of resting memory B cells with age and normalization of activated B cell phenotypes in HIV-infected children. Journal of Immunology 195, 1082-1091.

      Owang C, Kimani D, Edwards NJ, Roberts R, Mwacharo J, Bowyer G, Bliss C, Hodgson SH, Njuguna P, Viebig NK, Nicosia A, Gitau E, Douglas S, Illingworth J, Marsh K, Lawrie A, Imoukhuede EB, Ewer K, Urban BC*, S Hill AV*, Bejon P*. 2015. Prime-boost vaccination with chimpanzee adenovirus and modified vaccinia Ankara encoding TRAP provides partial protection against Plasmodium falciparum infection in Kenyan adults. Sci Transl Med. 7, 286re5. * joint last authors

      Gitau, E., Tuju, J., Karanja, H., Stevenson, L., Kimani, E., Olotu, A., Kimani, D., Marsh, K., Urban, B.C. 2014. CD4+ T-cell responses to the Plasmodium falciparum Erythrocyte Membrane Protein 1 in children with mild malaria. Journal of Immunology 192, 1753-1761.

      Guermonprez, P., Helft, J., Claser, C. , Deroubaix, S., Karanja, H., Gazumyan, A., Darasse-Jeze, G., Telerman, S., Breton, G., Schreiber, H.A., Frias-Staheli, N., Billerbeck, E., Dorner, M., Rice, C.M., Ploss, A., Klein, F., Swiecki, M., Colonna, M., Kamphorst, A.O., Meredith, M., Niec, R., Takacs, C., Mikhail, F., Hari, A., Bosque, D., Eisenreich, T., Merad, M., Shi, Y., Ginhoux, F., Rénia, L., Urban, B.C., Nussenzweig, M. 2013. Inflammatory Flt3l is essential to mobilize dendritic cells and for T cell responses during Plasmodium infection. Nature Medicine 19, 730-738.