Dr Catherine H. Pashley
Cat was appointed as a lecturer in the department of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation (3I’s) in April 2017, specialising in Aerobiology and Clinical Mycology. She completed her PhD in 2003, undertaking a part-time PhD (1997-2003) into the use of molecular markers in the study of the origin and evolution of the invasive weed, Japanese Knotweed, within the department of biology at the University of Leicester. Her PhD was funded by a local charity, the Midlands Asthma and Allergy Research Association (MAARA) in exchange for her maintaining the pollen slide collection at Leicester University, and for producing the Leicestershire pollen data.
This was followed by a two year (2004-2006) post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN within the department of biological sciences studying the genetic evolution of domesticated sunflower, by analysing patterns of variation in gene-based simple-sequence-repeats (SSRs). She returned to the University of Leicester in 2006 to join the department of 3I’s to take up a five year postdoctoral position, tasked to set up and run an aerobiology and clinical mycology group funded by MAARA. She was then awarded a one year Wellcome Trust VIP award (2011-2012) followed by a five year fellowship funded by MAARA (2012-2017), to continue this work prior to beginning her new lectureship.
Research Interests
Cat is interested in the integration of molecular biology with traditional aerobiology and clinical mycology; and their application to understanding the role fungi play in causing and exacerbating respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD and cystic fibrosis. Her research interests fall into two main areas: firstly, the detection of fungi from respiratory samples, which includes studies to determine the clinical relevance of the various fungi found, and secondly, the detection of airborne pollen and fungal spores with a particular focus on investigating airborne fungal spore diversity.
Cat sits on the Researcher Forum Committee
Contact: chp5@le.ac.uk
3I Researcher Forum Yammer Group
