Julian Rayner

Julian Rayner is a malaria researcher, and a member of academic Faculty at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He is also Director of Wellcome Genome Campus Connecting Science.

Rayner completed his undergraduate studies in New Zealand, before undertaking his PhD at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. He joined the Sanger Institute in 2008,and became a Senior Group Leader in 2013. In 2014 he was appointed as the Director of Connecting Science for the Wellcome Genome Campus.

Rayner's research interests encompass the origins of Plasmodium parasites, and how their invasion of red blood cells cause all the symptoms of malaria. Working with collaborators such as Dr. Beatrice Hahn, he has demonstrated that Plasmodium falciparum is likely to have originated in gorillas, rather than chimpanzees or ancient humans. Together with colleagues at the Sanger Institute, Rayner has identified a key ligand which is essential for erythrocyte invasion by P. falciparum and therefore has significant anti-malarial potential.

• 2015: Awarded CA Wright Memorial medal by the British Society for Parasitology.

• "CA Wright Memorial Medal". 

• Centre for Genomics and Global Health
• Connecting Science
• Wellcome Genome Campus