CV - Dr Finney
Current
position
Associate Professor - University of Calgary
​2013 - present
​The lab studies the host parasite interface, focusing on parasite biology and host immunology. We are also testing anti-parasitic drugs. To improve the translation of our results from the lab to the real world, we are developing murine infection models which better mimic natural infection dynamics .
Previous​
experience​
Post-Doctoral Fellow - University of Calgary
​2011 - 2012
​I worked with Dr Guido van Marle on the role of specific HIV proteins on immune cell subtypes in vitro.
Post-Doctoral Fellow - University of Toronto
​2007 - 2011
​I worked with Dr Kevin Kain on innate immune mechanisms in murine models of malaria, as well as in the context of human HIV co-infection. I also collaborated with Dr Julie Moore on immune responses during pregnancy associated malaria and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals on adjunctive therapies to cerebral malaria.
Education
PhD in Immunoparasitology - University of Edinburgh
​2003 - 2006
I worked with Dr Rick Maizels on the role of regulatory T cells in murine models of intestinal worm infection.
BSc in Biology - Imperial College London
1999-2003
​I spent a year of my degree working for GlaxoSmithKline on HIV in the clinical virology department.
Commonly used techniques
in the Finney Lab
Animal models of infection
Flow cytometry
Microscopy (pathology & fluorescence)
ELISA/ELIspot
DNA/RNA isolation
qPCR
Library prep & sequencing
Drug testing assays
Parasite culture
​
Infectious diseases studied in the Finney Lab
Helminths:
- Heligmosomoides bakeri
- Haemonchus contorus
- Haemonchus placei
- Ostertagia ostertagi
- Cooperia punctata
- Cooperia oncophora
- Anyclostoma ceylanicum
Apicomplexans:
- Toxoplasma gondii
Myxozoans:
- Myxobolus cerebral