Prof. Robin May MA(Oxon), PhD

Professor of Infectious Diseases in Global Health

Research Focus

Host-Pathogen Interactions

Scientific Activities

Robin May's early training was in Plant Sciences (University of Oxford) followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology with Prof. Laura Machesky (University College London & University of Birmingham). From 2001-2004 he was a Human Frontier Science Program fellow with Prof. Ronald Plasterk at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, working on RNA interference mechanisms. In 2005 he obtained a Research Council UK Fellowship to establish my own group at the University of Birmingham. In 2010 he was awarded a Lister Fellowship and in 2013 he was presented with the Colworth Medal of the Biochemical Society.

Prof. May currently hold a Consolidator Award from the European Research Council and previously served as a co-director of the NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. His research interests focus on host-pathogen interactions and, in particular in understanding how some pathogens are able to subvert the innate immune system. Much of our work is aimed at improving the treatment or prevention of opportunistic infections in patients with impaired immunity, such as HIV-positive individuals, patients in critical care, or people with long-term immune-compromising conditions.

Significant Publications

Voelz K, Idnurm A, Smith LM, Hall RA, Johnston SA, May RC. Pathogenic 'division of labour' in response to host ROS drives a fatal fungal outbreak. Nature Communications, 2014, 5:5194.

Sabiiti W, Robertson E, Beale MA, Johnston SA, Brouwer AE, Loyse A, Jarvis JN, Fisher MC, Harrison TS, May RC*, Bicanic T* [Joint corresponding author]. Efficient phagocytosis and laccase activity affect the outcome of HIV-associated cryptococcosis. J. Clin Invest, 2014, 124(5):2000-2008.

Ma H, Croudace JE, Lammas DA, May RC. Expulsion of live pathogenic yeast by macrophages. Curr Biol. 2006 Nov 7;16(21):2156-60. 

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Collaborators