Health (human and animal)

Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the fields of medicine, veterinary medicine, and biomedical sciences are working together on health issues of critical importance to the developing world - including infectious disease, immunology, epidemiology and sports science.

Parasitic diseases have a disproportionate effect on African populations. Glasgow has a long-standing history of research into human and veterinary parasitic diseases, and researchers at the University are leading many projects on tropical diseases – with particular emphases on malaria, trypanosomiasis (also known as sleeping sickness in humans) and leishmaniasis.

The Wellcome Centre for Molecular Parasitology, based at the University of Glasgow, is one of only nine Wellcome Trust centres in the UK, with a remit to study basic features of parasites, using genetic and molecular technology allied with study of parasites as whole organisms. Researchers at the Centre study basic biological processes that are of fundamental importance to the parasites, and also examine some of these basic processes at higher biological levels, such as populations of parasites during infection or even in populations of hosts in the field, with the ultimate aim of developing new approaches to the control of parasites and the diseases they cause.

The Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health brings together researchers focussing on the relationship between the health of ecosystems and their constituent human and animal populations. The discipline expands the traditional definitions of health, recognising the critical links between human activity, ecological change and health.

Current research projects in Health