Reynolds, and Dr Kara Filbey and who truly taught me how to design and perform experiments, be a conscious lab citizen, conduct croissant / coffee fuelled lab meetings and publish quality collaborative science. A wonderful, joyful, and colourful group of incredibly clever people that ignited my belief in myself and our contribution to the field. Finally, Dr Lorna Proudfoot and Dr Eva Malone for believing in a very unconfident nervous Masters student and tutoring me to help me achieve my

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... l. Lecturers that truly care about teaching and their students are not as common as we all would like to believe and I am truly grateful for all the extra help they both gave me throughout my course. Without all of you lads and lassies, I would never have started to conduct research at the strange intersection of Parasitology and Immunology nor been given the building blocks that paved my way from Bonnie Scotland to Professor Alex Loukas in Australia. Now the Aussies (and people of other nationalities residing in Australia), Professor Alex Loukas, my primary supervisor who spear headed this whole project and kindly gave me so much support. Secondly, Dr Paul Giacomin, I acknowledge the calm, critical and supportive way that you supervise and I believe it is a reflection of the calibre of the great teams that you stem from. Professor Kirill Alexandrov and Dr Wayne Johnston for collaborating with our team and training me at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland. iii Dr Severine Navarro for fantastic training in so many experimental techniques. Dr Ramon Eichenberger for your kind words on tough days and all your help with illustrator. Professor Norelle Daly and Dr David Wilson for helping me with structural modelling and always being so friendly and supportive. Dr Matt Field and Dr Ashley Waardenberg, I acknowledge your invaluable bioinformatics expertise. Dr Adrian Esterman for his statistical analysis support. Mrs Linda Ryan (Jones) and Ms Martha Cooper who are not just great friends but the best lab partner and statistical queen/thesis editor, respectively, that I could have asked for; I am so lucky to have two such caring, clever, and kind women in my life.