About
Lesley Bell-Sakyi manages the Tick Cell Biobank, the world’s largest collection of continuous cell lines derived from ticks and other arthropods. Her particular expertise lies in the establishment of continuous cell lines (over 60 to date) from embryonic, larval and nymphal tissues of a range of tick and insect species, and the propagation and study of viral, bacterial and protozoan pathogens in arthropod cell and organ culture systems. Lesley’s career spans nearly 45 years of research on ticks and tick-borne diseases of livestock and humans at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (1977-2008 including three years’ field work on secondment to the Ghana Government Veterinary Services Department) and Roslin Institute (2008-2012), The Pirbright Institute (2012-2017) and the University of Liverpool (since 2017). She has worked with arboviruses, intracellular bacteria of the genera Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, Spiroplasma and Wolbachia, and protozoa of the genera Babesia and Theileria. She holds degrees of BSc in Biology (Aberdeen, 1976), MPhil (Edinburgh, 1983) and PhD (Utrecht, 2004). Lesley has co-authored over 130 research papers and, through the Tick Cell Biobank, maintains collaborative links with over 45 research institutes in UK, Europe and worldwide.