Jenefer Blackwell

Blackwell moved to the UK in 1975 and worked at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine for 17 years. She was funded by a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship until 1991.^[5] In 1991 Blackwell joined the University of Cambridge, where she raised money to develop the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research as the Glaxo Professor of Molecular Parasitology.^[1] She chaired the World Health Organization Leishmania Genome Consortium between 1992 and 2003.^[5][6][7] As part of the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium she discovered that HLA alleles regulating cell-mediated immunity are major genetic risk factors for visceral leishmaniasis, a factor that could be important in genome-based vaccine development.^[8] She contributed to several books and review papers on genomics and leishmaniasis.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

She returned to University of Western Australia in 2007, where she established a genetics laboratory at The Kids Research Institute Australia.^[5][14] Here she has undertaken genetic and functional studies of otitis media, rare genetic diseases, rheumatic heart disease, congenital infections, metabolic diseases, including in aboriginal populations.^[5] She identified genetic risk factors for high BMI, rheumatic heart disease and Type 2 Diabetes amongst aboriginal communities.^[15][16]

1994 - British Society for Parasitology Chris Wright Medal^[17]

2000 - Leverhulme Medal (Royal Society)^[1]

2000 - Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences^[18]

2009 - Honorary Doctorate from the University of Khartoum

2015 - Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science^[8][19]

2015 - University of Western Australia Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Award^[20]