Dr Staines studied for a BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

He undertook his DPhil in Cellular Physiology (funded by an MRC studentship) and postdoctoral studies at the University of Oxford, with the aim of characterising potential antimalarial drug targets. In particular, he provided a detailed characterisation of the New Permeability Pathways, a novel small solute transport pathway induced in the plasma membrane of erythrocytes infected by Plasmodium parasites.

After successfully competing for a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Award, he moved to St George’s. He has since widened his research to include i) heterologous expression studies, ii) transport studies at important malarial parasite life cycle stages (mosquito and liver) other than those in the blood, iii) research on parasites related to Plasmodium, iv) mechanisms of drug resistance, v) drug discovery and development, and vi) molecular diagnostics.

Honours and awards

• 2005-2009 Wellcome Trust RCD Fellowship

• 1997 The Peter Beaconsfield Prize

• 1996 Inaugural Oxford/ANU Exchange Programme student

Dr Staines’ main research interests relate to the understanding of solute transport during both host and vector infection with malarial (and related) parasites. This has included the study of transport pathways that are potential novel drug targets and those that are involved in drug resistance.

Parasite transporters

He has undertaken detailed characterizations and increased our understanding of a range of important parasite related transport pathways, including i) the essential New Permeability Pathways, NPP, which are induced in the host plasma membrane of Plasmodium-infected red blood cells and which are selective for anions but also have significant permeability to a range of uncharged organic solutes and monovalent cations, ii) apicomplexan Ca²⁺/H⁺ exchangers, of which the plasmodial orthologue provides an essential tolerance process against high external Ca²⁺ concentrations during parasite transmission through its vector mosquito, iii) plasmodial vacuolar iron transporters, which provide an important tolerance mechanism to excess Fe²⁺, iv) apicomplexan hexose transporters, including demonstrating the critical importance of glucose transport during plasmodial liver-stage development, v) the chloroquine resistance transporter, PfCRT, in which novel mutations have been identified that will help to understand its physiological function.

Host transporters

He has also highlighted the importance of endogenous transport pathways to parasite survival including i) detailing the changes in activity of cation transporters in Plasmodium-infected red blood cells, ii) reporting the first demonstration of altered endogenous transport in Plasmodium-infected liver cells and iii) providing evidence for the importance of the host’s glucose transporter, GLUT1, and arginine transporter, CAT2A/B, during the development of liver-stage Plasmodium parasites.

Other contributions

In addition, he has also been involved in:

- the first study demonstrating the effectiveness of artemisinins on clinical isolates of P. knowlesi.

- the development of the effective Ebola vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV.

- the first electrophysiological characterization of sickle trait red blood cells.

- the development of next-generation, point-of-care, molecular diagnostics for neglected and emerging tropical infections, in collaboration with industry (QuantuMDx Group Ltd.).

MRC-LID PhD Studentship to Nicholas Erkersley (primary supervisor Dr HM Staines, secondary supervisor Dr D Allen) entitled: Detection of infectious diseases in febrile patients in field studies in Gabon using molecular assays including next generation diagnostics. £93,226 10/2019 – 03/2024.

MRC-LID PhD Studentship to Tansy Vallintine (primary supervisor Dr C van Ooij, secondary supervisor Dr HM Staines) entitled: Shining a light on the dense granules of malaria parasites. £93,226 10/2019 – 03/2024.

H2020 Research & Innovation Action - Lump Sum to Prof S Krishna (co-applicants Dr HM Staines, Ms C Jansen, Prof S Croft, Dr V Yardley, Mr Hans Platteeuw, Prof PG Kremsner, Prof Ali Khamesipour) entitled: Clinical development of oral oleylphosphocholine as a new drug for the treatment of Old World Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (TT4CL). €3,753,136 05/2019 – 04/2023.

St George’s Wellcome Trust ISSF Pilot Project Award to Dr D J Clark, Dr HM Staines & Prof S Krishna entitled: Development of a low cost blood fractionation apparatus to enable multiple diagnostic pathways. £9,000 01/2019 – 12/2019.

St George’s ERC PhD Studentship to Benedict Davies (primary supervisor Dr HM Staines, secondary supervisor Prof S Krishna) entitled: Characterisation of new antimalarial drug targets, using state-of-the-art molecular approaches. £90,000 10/2018 – 09/2021.

Industrial funding to Dr H M Staines for development of diagnostic assays and technologies. £150,245 01/2017 – ongoing.

St George’s Wellcome Trust ISSF Pilot Project Award to Dr HM Staines entitled: Heavy metal transport in malarial parasites. £5,800 03/2018 – 08/2018.

St George’s Impact & Innovation Award to Dr HM Staines (co-applicants Prof S Krishna, Dr T Planche) entitled: Development of a dengue assay for use with next generation PoC diagnostics. £15,000 07/2015 – 08/2016.

MRC CiC (Tropical Infectious Disease Consortium) project grant award to Prof S Croft (co-applicants Dr HM Staines, Prof S Krishna, Ms E Warburton OBE) entitled: Development of a Leishmania identification PCR assay for use with next generation PoC diagnostic devices. £48,000. 09/2014 – 07/2015.

European Union FP7 award to Prof S Krishna (co-applicants Dr HM Staines, Ms E Warburton OBE, Dr J O’Halloran, Dr JP Gil, Prof PG Kremsner) entitled: Development of a handheld antimalarial drug resistance diagnostic device using nanowire technology (NANOMAL). €3,992,150 07/2012 – 06/2015.

Wellcome Trust Broadcast Development Award to Ms J Marshall (co-applicants Dr HM Staines, Prof Sanjeev Krishna, Prof Angus Dalgleish) entitled: The Secret Life of Drugs. £10,000. 11/2009 – 04/2010.

Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship to Dr HM Staines entitled: Characterisation of Plasmodium falciparum-derived ion channels. £518,212. 08/2005 – 12/2009.

Academic

• Professor Maria Mota ( Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon

• Professor Kiaran Kirk ( Australian National University, Australia)

• Professor Clive Ellory (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)

• Dr Robert Wilkins (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)

• Professor Rita Tewari (University of Nottingham, United Kingdom)

Industry

• QuantuMDx Group Ltd (United Kingdom)

• Avivia (Nijmegan, (The Netherlands)

• Oblita Therapeutics (Belgium)

Dr Staines is the MRes Biomedicine Infection & Immunity Pathway Lead