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Staff photo Oliver Billker

Oliver Billker

My research is about genome scale approaches to understand the biology of malaria parasites and how they interact with the mosquitoes that transmit them.

Contact

Works at

Affiliation
Professor at Department of Molecular Biology Section: Group Oliver Billker
Location
6K och 6L, Sjukhusområdet Umeå universitet, 901 87 Umeå
Affiliation
Affiliated as research fellow at Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden (MIMS) Role: Director
Location
6L, Institutionen för molekylärbiologi Institutionen för molekylärbiologi, 90187 Umeå

Malaria is caused by single-celled parasites that replicate inside red blood cells, and that naturally can only be transmitted by mosquitoes. We want to reveal the hidden and fascinating biology of these important organisms, so that it can be exploited by new drugs and vaccines.
 
Preconceived ideas can get in the way of new discoveries. We have therefore developed molecular tools to interrogate the functions of thousands of parasite genes simultaneously and in an unbiased manner. Now we can conduct genome-scale genetic screens in Plasmodium berghei, a species of parasite that only infects rodents and that we can study safely and easily at all stages of its life cycle. We transfer concepts for the effective discovery of gene functions from model organisms like yeast, to malaria parasites. This will help unlock important areas of parasite cell biology, from the regulation of development to parasite-host-mosquito interactions. Our discoveries have in many instances helped the research into new drugs and vaccines.

Trends in Parasitology, CellPress 2023, Vol. 39, (5) : 317-318
Chookajorn, Thanat; Billker, Oliver
Microbiology Spectrum, American Society for Microbiology 2023, Vol. 11, (5)
Kengne-Ouafo, Jonas A.; Bah, Saikou Y.; Kemp, Alison; et al.
Communications Biology, Nature Publishing Group 2023, Vol. 6, (1)
Marreiros, Inês M.; Marques, Sofia; Parreira, Ana; et al.
Cell Host and Microbe, Cell Press 2023, Vol. 31, (2) : 305-319.e10
Russell, Andrew J.C.; Sanderson, Theo; Bushell, Ellen; et al.
Current Opinion in Microbiology, Elsevier 2021, Vol. 63 : 259-266
Chiappino-Pepe, Anush; Pandey, Vikash; Billker, Oliver
Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, Elsevier 2021, Vol. 20
Knöckel, Julia; Dundas, Kirsten; Yang, Annie S.P.; et al.
Scientific Reports, Springer Nature 2021, Vol. 11, (1)
Miguel-Blanco, Celia; Murithi, James M.; Benavente, Ernest Diez; et al.
Nature Communications, Nature Publishing Group 2020, Vol. 11, (1)
Adderley, Jack D.; von Freyend, Simona John; Jackson, Sarah A.; et al.
Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group 2020, Vol. 10, (1)
Akkaya, Munir; Bansal, Abhisheka; Sheehan, Patrick W.; et al.
Science Advances, American Association for the Advancement of Science 2020, Vol. 6, (6)
Akkaya, Munir; Bansal, Abhisheka; Sheehan, Patrick W.; et al.
Wellcome open research, Wellcome open research 2020, Vol. 5
Marr, Edward J; Milne, Rachel M; Anar, Burcu; et al.
Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2020, Vol. 369, (6507) : 1128-1132
Raddi, Gianmarco; Barletta, Ana Beatriz F.; Efremova, Mirjana; et al.
Stem cell reports, Elsevier 2020, Vol. 14, (6) : 1123-1134
Tripathi, Jaishree; Segeritz, Charis-Patricia; Griffiths, Gareth; et al.
Cell Reports, Elsevier 2019, Vol. 28, (6) : 1635-1647
Hillier, Charles; Pardo, Mercedes; Yu, Lu; et al.
Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science 2019, Vol. 365, (6455)
Howick, Virginia M.; Russell, Andrew J. C.; Andrews, Tallulah; et al.
Cell, Elsevier 2019, Vol. 179, (5) : 1112-1128.e1-e15
Stanway, Rebecca R.; Bushell, Ellen; Chiappino-Pepe, Anush; et al.
Cell Host and Microbe, Elsevier 2018, Vol. 24, (6) : 754-755
Billker, Oliver
Genome Research, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (CSHL) 2018, Vol. 28, (4) : 547-560
Böhme, Ulrike; Otto, Thomas D.; Cotton, James A.; et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, National Academy of Sciences 2018, Vol. 115, (17) : 4477-4482
Dundas, Kirsten; Shears, Melanie J.; Sun, Yi; et al.
Nature Communications, Nature Publishing Group 2018, Vol. 9
Fang, Hanwei; Gomes, Ana Rita; Klages, Natacha; et al.
Nature Microbiology, Nature Publishing Group 2018, Vol. 3, (11) : 1206-1213
Kent, Robyn S; Modrzynska, Katarzyna K; Cameron, Rachael; et al.
Journal of Proteomics, Vol. 180 : 61-69
Moussa, Ehab; Huang, Honglei; Ahras, Malika; et al.
eLIFE, eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2018, Vol. 7
Reid, Adam J.; Talman, Arthur M.; Bennett, Hayley M.; et al.
eLIFE, eLife Sciences Publications 2017, Vol. 6
Billker, Oliver
Nature Microbiology, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2017, Vol. 2, (4)
Brugat, Thibaut; Reid, Adam James; Lin, Jingwen; et al.
Cell, Cell Press 2017, Vol. 170, (2) : 260-272.e1-e4
Bushell, Ellen; Gomes, Ana Rita; Sanderson, Theo; et al.
Cell Reports, Elsevier 2017, Vol. 21, (7) : 2017-2029
Invergo, Brandon M.; Brochet, Mathieu; Yu, Lu; et al.
Science immunology, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2017, Vol. 2, (9)
Lönnberg, Tapio; Svensson, Valentine; James, Kylie R.; et al.
Nature, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2017, Vol. 547, (7662) : 213-216
Mancio-Silva, Liliana; Slavic, Ksenija; Grilo Ruivo, Margarida T.; et al.
Cell Host and Microbe, Cell Press 2017, Vol. 21, (1) : 11-22
Modrzynska, Katarzyna; Pfander, Claudia; Chappell, Lia; et al.
Journal of Infectious Diseases, Oxford University Press 2016, Vol. 214, (12) : 1840-1849
Alkaitis, Matthew S.; Wang, Honghui; Ikeda, Allison K.; et al.
Molecular Microbiology, John Wiley & Sons 2016, Vol. 100, (3) : 397-408
Brochet, Mathieu; Billker, Oliver
Molecular Microbiology, John Wiley & Sons 2016, Vol. 102, (2) : 349-363
Govindasamy, K; Jebiwott, S; Jaijyan, D K; et al.
Cellular Microbiology, John Wiley & Sons 2016, Vol. 18, (11) : 1625-1641
Hopp, Christine S; Balaban, Amanda E; Bushell, Ellen S C; et al.
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science 2016, Vol. 11, (3)
McInroy, Gordon R; Beraldi, Dario; Raiber, Eun-Ang; et al.
Genome Biology, BioMed Central 2016, Vol. 17
Proserpio, Valentina; Piccolo, Andrea; Haim-Vilmovsky, Liora; et al.
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science 2016, Vol. 11, (6)
Yiangou, Loukia; Montandon, Ruddy; Modrzynska, Katarzyna; et al.
Cell Host and Microbe, Elsevier 2015, Vol. 18, (1) : 9-10
Billker, Oliver; Rayner, Julian C.
PLoS Pathogens, Public Library of Science 2015, Vol. 11, (9)
Chertow, Jessica H; Alkaitis, Matthew S; Nardone, Glenn; et al.
Cell Host and Microbe, Cell Press 2015, Vol. 17, (3) : 404-413
Gomes, Ana Rita; Bushell, Ellen; Schwach, Frank; et al.
Nucleic Acids Research, Oxford University Press 2015, Vol. 43, (Database issue) : D1176-D1182
Schwach, Frank; Bushell, Ellen; Gomes, Ana Rita; et al.
Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group 2015, Vol. 5
Yeung, A T Y; Hale, C; Xia, J; et al.
Infection and Immunity, American Society for Microbiology 2014, Vol. 82, (3) : 1277-1286
Bauza, Karolis; Malinauskas, Tomas; Pfander, Claudia; et al.
PLoS biology, Public Library of Science 2014, Vol. 12, (3)
Brochet, Mathieu; Collins, Mark O.; Smith, Terry K.; et al.
PLoS Pathogens, PLOS 2014, Vol. 10, (7)
Oppenheim, Rebecca D.; Creek, Darren J.; Macrae, James I.; et al.
BMC Biology, BioMed Central 2014, Vol. 12
Otto, Thomas D.; Böhme, Ulrike; Jackson, Andrew P.; et al.
Nature, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2014, Vol. 507, (7491) : 253-257
Sinha, Abhinav; Hughes, Katie R.; Modrzynska, Katarzyna K; et al.
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science 2013, Vol. 8, (11) : e80723-e80723
Everitt, Aaron R; Clare, Simon; McDonald, Jacqueline U; et al.
Traffic: the International Journal of Intracellular Transport, John Wiley & Sons 2013, Vol. 14, (8) : 895-911
Frénal, Karine; Tay, Chwen L.; Mueller, Christina; et al.
Genes & Development, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (CSHL) 2013, Vol. 27, (10) : 1198-1215
Ning, Jue; Otto, Thomas D.; Pfander, Claudia; et al.

Research groups

Research Leader
Oliver Billker Lab