Dr Elizabeth Aitken
Research Officer
Clinical Research
Doherty Institute
Australia
Biography
Dr Elizabeth Aitken obtained her PhD ‘Malaria in pregnancy: immunity and a mechanism for low birth weight babies’ at the University of Melbourne. Following this she worked briefly on immunity to malaria at the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research and then at the University of Edinburgh. From 2012-2014 she worked at the University of Sao Paulo looking pulmonary malaria and also Plasmodium spp. infection in wild monkeys. In 2014, Elizabeth started work with Professor Stephen Roberson’s laboratory at the University of Melbourne. Elizabeth is currently investigating whether the innate immune response to the malaria parasite can explain why some individuals get sick while others do not.
Research Interest
Elizabeth has been working on malaria since 2006 and has published a number of peer reviewed research articles in this field. In 2011, she was the recipient of an Endeavour Research Fellowship as part of the Endeavour Awards scheme. In 2012, she was awarded a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).
