Matt Higgins
@parasitematt.bsky.social
Molecular Parasitologist. Teacher. Fascinated by how parasites interact with our immune system. Rational vaccine designer. Country boy and nature lover. 🏳️🌈
The Higgins lab are proud to have received a Gold LEAF award, recognising our efforts to minimise the environmental impact of our research. Thanks to lab manager, Hannah Ivison, Alex Cook and to everyone in the lab for working on this together. More to do!
July 26, 2025 at 8:39 AM
The Higgins lab are proud to have received a Gold LEAF award, recognising our efforts to minimise the environmental impact of our research. Thanks to lab manager, Hannah Ivison, Alex Cook and to everyone in the lab for working on this together. More to do!
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
rdcu.be/ewPA2
July 18, 2025 at 1:39 PM
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
rdcu.be/ewPA2
Our latest story describes the amazing evolutionary battle between malaria parasite and human. The parasite evolved RIFINs to bind inhibitory KIR receptors and suppress immune cell function while humans have activating KIR receptors to bind these RIFINs to kill parasites!
June 13, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Our latest story describes the amazing evolutionary battle between malaria parasite and human. The parasite evolved RIFINs to bind inhibitory KIR receptors and suppress immune cell function while humans have activating KIR receptors to bind these RIFINs to kill parasites!
Looking for a fully-funded D. Phil. / Ph.D. studentship in structural biology and vaccinology? Come to join our team. Fully and generously funded by a donation from the Kyner-Field family with full fees at overseas level. Join us!
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships
June 3, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Looking for a fully-funded D. Phil. / Ph.D. studentship in structural biology and vaccinology? Come to join our team. Fully and generously funded by a donation from the Kyner-Field family with full fees at overseas level. Join us!
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships
www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/studentships
Nawsad presented our structure-guided design of RH5top, our latest blood stage-malaria vaccine immunogen, in talk and poster at the Malaria Gordon conference. The culmination of many studies from the lab and collaborators and doing well in pre-clinical testing! More soon.
June 1, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Nawsad presented our structure-guided design of RH5top, our latest blood stage-malaria vaccine immunogen, in talk and poster at the Malaria Gordon conference. The culmination of many studies from the lab and collaborators and doing well in pre-clinical testing! More soon.
The symposium to celebrate Mark Carrington's career is coming soon. You have until 15th to book in. A great day of science, particularly if you are excited about kinetoplastids! And a day of celebration.
March 9, 2025 at 12:18 PM
The symposium to celebrate Mark Carrington's career is coming soon. You have until 15th to book in. A great day of science, particularly if you are excited about kinetoplastids! And a day of celebration.
It is a great honour to invite you to a symposium to celebrate the career of Mark Carrington. An exciting set of talks, particularly if you are fascinated by trypanosomes.
January 13, 2025 at 10:32 AM
It is a great honour to invite you to a symposium to celebrate the career of Mark Carrington. An exciting set of talks, particularly if you are fascinated by trypanosomes.
A really fun day out at the UK NK cell meeting. Thanks to @mjwsim.bsky.social for organising a great day and for inviting @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social to talk about his work on how RIFINs bind to the KIR immune receptors to modulate NK function in malaria.
January 7, 2025 at 2:40 PM
A really fun day out at the UK NK cell meeting. Thanks to @mjwsim.bsky.social for organising a great day and for inviting @sam-chamberlain.bsky.social to talk about his work on how RIFINs bind to the KIR immune receptors to modulate NK function in malaria.
CD163 is a scavenger receptor and it has a tricky task to grab a variety of different haptoglobin-haemoglobin complexes without binding haptoglobin alone. Richard showed how its complex architecture creates arms which are used as a grabber, how this is regulated by calcium and how it autoinhibits.
January 7, 2025 at 8:58 AM
CD163 is a scavenger receptor and it has a tricky task to grab a variety of different haptoglobin-haemoglobin complexes without binding haptoglobin alone. Richard showed how its complex architecture creates arms which are used as a grabber, how this is regulated by calcium and how it autoinhibits.
New science from Richard Zhou... When our blood cells lyse, they release haemoglobin, which is dangerous to our body when free. We detoxify this by binding it to a serum protein, haptoglobin and taking it up into macrophages, using the receptor CD163. Richard showed how CD163 works!
January 7, 2025 at 8:58 AM
New science from Richard Zhou... When our blood cells lyse, they release haemoglobin, which is dangerous to our body when free. We detoxify this by binding it to a serum protein, haptoglobin and taking it up into macrophages, using the receptor CD163. Richard showed how CD163 works!
Congratulations to Dr Richard Zhou! And thanks to his lovely examiners @doryenbubeck.bsky.social and Yvonne Jones for giving him a really engaging viva. Watch out for his nice paper, coming soon. A proud supervisor.
December 20, 2024 at 6:44 PM
Congratulations to Dr Richard Zhou! And thanks to his lovely examiners @doryenbubeck.bsky.social and Yvonne Jones for giving him a really engaging viva. Watch out for his nice paper, coming soon. A proud supervisor.
Congratulations to Dr Kuang-Ting! Expert on the gametocyte surface and structural characteriser of transmission blocking malaria vaccine immunogens. I’m a proud supervisor today!
December 13, 2024 at 5:04 PM
Congratulations to Dr Kuang-Ting! Expert on the gametocyte surface and structural characteriser of transmission blocking malaria vaccine immunogens. I’m a proud supervisor today!
When visiting Manchester it is always good to pay homage to Alan Turing. Did this amazing man think that he would have a statue and a fancy building named after him as he suffered chemical castration for being gay. A brutal reminder of how things were and that we must always fight not to go back.
November 18, 2024 at 8:24 PM
When visiting Manchester it is always good to pay homage to Alan Turing. Did this amazing man think that he would have a statue and a fancy building named after him as he suffered chemical castration for being gay. A brutal reminder of how things were and that we must always fight not to go back.
Joyful to spend the international day of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM at the first STEM village immunology symposium! Thanks to @mcsinton.bsky.social and @juanquintana.bsky.social for bringing us together!
November 18, 2024 at 8:18 PM
Joyful to spend the international day of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM at the first STEM village immunology symposium! Thanks to @mcsinton.bsky.social and @juanquintana.bsky.social for bringing us together!