Photo of Sam Duncan in the lab

Can you tell us about your background?

I’m from Glasgow and grew up in Shawlands. I finished my education at Shawlands academy in 2006 and despite playing a lot of GTA San Andreas at that time, I obtained the exam results necessary to apply for university. After school I took a gap year, worked in nightclubs and supermarkets to save some cash, then travelled abroad. During this trip I visited my brother who was living in Tianjin, China, and we had a great time travelling around Chong-Qing and Vietnam. I have always enjoyed animals and biology, and so I applied to study Zoology at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2012. My first taste of laboratory science was during my honours project investigating the transmission competence in the Sleeping Sickness parasite, Trypanosoma brucei. I realised scientific research was my passion, and I became fascinated by kinetoplastid parasites and the biology of parasitism in general.

After completing my degree, I moved back to Glasgow to conduct my PhD studies within III’s at the WCIP investigating another kinetoplastid parasite, Leishmania mexicana. Here I developed a novel genetic approach in L. mexicana, which enabled the first ever deletion of an essential gene in Leishmania! I obtained a scholarship to fund a 3 month placement at the end of my PhD with collaborators in Rio de Janeiro. Despite not obtaining a suntan, or learning much Portuguese, this was an incredible trip. I gained enormous respect for Brazilian researchers who conduct high quality studies and investigations, despite logistical and funding challenges.

After completing my PhD, I obtained a post-doctoral position at Dundee in 2016. Here I chiefly investigated glycosylation pathways by generating conditional null mutant Trypanosoma brucei and analysing their glycans for 6 very enjoyable years. This sparked my interest in parasite glycosylation- a fascinating but incredibly complex process to decipher, with crucial roles in both parasite cell biology and host-parasite interactions.

What is the focus of your research?

In 2022 I returned to Glasgow and SBOHVM by securing a postdoctoral role in the laboratory of Prof. Collette Britton to investigate the interactions between gastrointestinal parasitic nematodes and their livestock hosts. I am part of an exciting collaboration between Glasgow, Moredun Research Institute and the University of New England in Australia. Together we aim to develop a much-needed vaccine to protect sheep from the harm caused by infection with the gastrointestinal nematodes T. circumcincta and T. colubriformis. My role is to perform genetic manipulation of these worms and impair the release of factors that aid their survival. An exciting element of this project is that we have a wealth of new genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data for these parasites, thanks to previous and ongoing collaborations. These datasets are providing new insights into the core biology of these parasitic worms, and I’ve identified many proteins which are highly upregulated during infection as targets for RNA interference.

Why did you decide to come to SBOHVM?

From my previous time as a PhD student in MVLS, I was already aware of the huge body of research generated from years of investigation into veterinary infectious helminths by SBOHVM, championed by Prof. Eileen Devaney, Prof. Britton and many others within the School. Many of these studies fundamentally drove our understanding of host immunomodulation by parasitic helminths. SBOHVM is a world-leading centre for veterinary parasitic helminth and one health research and I knew this would be a key location to learn more about the unique biology of infectious organisms, the diseases they cause and how we can develop better ways to control them. Vet Parasitology has always been a strength at Glasgow, from development of lungworm vaccine through to understanding anthelmintic resistance using genomics/transcriptomics, and use of organoids and single-cell sequencing to study host-parasite interactions. I’ve now experienced the school as a collaborative and collegiate place to work, and I feel supported and enjoy supporting and training new researchers.

What do you find most interesting about your work?

Throughout my career I’ve been fascinated by parasites and how they have evolved to manipulate their hosts. Every day in my current role I’m learning about new factors and proteins these parasites make and release into their environment to develop, infect and survive. For example, infective larvae on pasture arrest their development, resuming this only when they sense the increase in temperature and acidity of a sheep stomach. They then change their gene expression and release many different proteins that help them survive by manipulating the immune response, while they steal nutrients from the host. Eventually, adult worms develop, mate and the females lay eggs that are shed into the field to repeat the cycle. The evolution of such a lifestyle is fascinating to me, and with these data we can observe the factors that are most important for driving their survival and sustaining infection. We hope that by understanding precisely how these worms manipulate their hosts, we can design a vaccine that targets and blocks those proteins to prevent worms establishing infection.

What has been the most positive aspect so far?

I have greatly enjoyed the collaborative nature of this project, and getting to know our friendly colleagues- even our milestone meetings at 8AM are enjoyable! Each of us has our own key skills and knowledge, to comprehensively cover all aspects of the project from parasitic worm culturing to advanced immunological techniques and vaccine delivery systems. My colleagues at SBOHVM have made me feel at home, and our neighbours at the Centre for Virus Research have shared their expertise and enabled access to cutting-edge microscopes and analytical equipment that has helped with my research.

What has been the most challenging aspect so far?

For me it has been a fascinating switch to move from studying single celled kinetoplastids to relatively large parasitic worms, that can be seen with the naked eye! However, they also have biological quirks that differ from kinetoplastids, such as multicellularity, monocistronic gene expression, the presence of introns and exons etc. The greatest experimental challenge is introducing genetic material and generating mutant helminths. And they are also very tricky to cultivate in the lab which makes the project difficult, but ultimately more rewarding.

What advice would you give to anyone doing or considering a PhD?

A PhD project can be tiring and stressful at times, so the most important factor for me is that you have a deep passion in your subject and enjoy doing the work required over your years of study. I was fortunate that the PhD project I undertook was incredibly suited to my interests in kinetoplastid parasites and infection, which helped me stay engaged and positive throughout. At the time of my PhD application, my partner and I considered staying in Edinburgh, however I found the PhD position I was offered there less interesting. I knew it would be difficult to sustain an interest for 4 years of study, so I turned that offer down and started at Glasgow instead- which paid off in the end!

Tell us about your future plans

I am fortunate to be employed on this project until 2028, so will be focussed on achieving our milestones and publishing our new discoveries and advances in parasitic nematode culture and gene manipulation. My ultimate goal is to achieve research independence, and I have submitted grant applications to fund my research into the role of glycosylation in parasitism.

First published: 14 March 2025

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