Timesh Pillay

Clinical Fellow - Student

I'm a training respiratory doctor in London and PhD student at the Francis Crick Institute (Katrin Rittinger's lab) and Imperial College London (Teresa Thurston's lab).

I'm interested in how respiratory infections occur. This includes who suffers from them globally; how the bug spreads; where in the lung is affected; what human cells are most important in the infection process; and what happens within one infected cell.

After training in the hospital before and during the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic, I aim to use my time in these labs to develop scientific skills in order to tackle current and future challenges that respiratory infectious diseases pose to our health and wellbeing. 

My current 'favourite' infectious agent to study, Salmonella enterica, affects the gut and blood stream rather than the lungs. However, like many bacteria that do affect the lung such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Salmonella uses a needle (type 3 secretion system) to transfer its own effector proteins into the human cell, thereby manipulating its environment to survive and replicate. This means studying Salmonella effector proteins is an opportunity for me to learn broadly about how bacteria manipulate the human cell.

Year published

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Journal

Crick Pre-Crick

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Last updated : 28 March 2024 02:21