Photini Sinnis, M.D.
she/her/hers
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Photini Sinnis, M.D., is a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, with a joint appointment in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the School of Medicine. She did her undergraduate work at Swarthmore College, obtained her M.D. from Dartmouth Medical School and completed a residency in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
Her research program centers on malaria with a particular focus on the infective stage of the parasite, the sporozoite. Sporozoite transmission is a significant bottleneck for the parasite and thus an excellent point for intervention. The Sinnis lab is currently investigating the molecular interactions between sporozoites and their mosquito and mammalian hosts that enable the parasite to initiate infection and the quantitative dynamics of sporozoite transmission, with the goal of informing the vaccine effort and improving epidemiological models of malaria.
In addition to her research, Sinnis is Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute and has had a long association with the Biology of Parasitism course offered in Woods Hole every summer, culminating in service as Course Director from 2015-2019. In this capacity, she worked to increase representation of students from disease-endemic countries and to maintain the informal atmosphere that is key to student learning, excitement and advancement to the next stage of their career.
Her research program centers on malaria with a particular focus on the infective stage of the parasite, the sporozoite. Sporozoite transmission is a significant bottleneck for the parasite and thus an excellent point for intervention. The Sinnis lab is currently investigating the molecular interactions between sporozoites and their mosquito and mammalian hosts that enable the parasite to initiate infection and the quantitative dynamics of sporozoite transmission, with the goal of informing the vaccine effort and improving epidemiological models of malaria.
In addition to her research, Sinnis is Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Institute and has had a long association with the Biology of Parasitism course offered in Woods Hole every summer, culminating in service as Course Director from 2015-2019. In this capacity, she worked to increase representation of students from disease-endemic countries and to maintain the informal atmosphere that is key to student learning, excitement and advancement to the next stage of their career.