US Edition
‘The new rock n roll stars of our time’: Photographer Rankin swaps celebrities for scientists
Acclaimed artist – renowned for his portraits of Kate Moss, Madonna, David Bowie and Queen Elizabeth II – fixes his lens on hidden heroes
He is more accustomed to working with royalty and celebrities, but British photographer Rankin has turned his camera on some of society's hidden heroes.
To mark World Malaria Day, a series of portraits capture, what the photographer describes as, “the new rock n roll stars of our our time” – the men and women working to eradicate the killer disease.
He said: “I’m really interested in who we idolise and why. Recently, I’ve been photographing the people I think are the real heroes of our generation. The ones who are solving the big questions and transforming the world for the better. These young, British-backed scientists are the people we should be celebrating. They are the new rock n roll stars of our time.
“Malaria is the world's oldest and deadliest disease. It's been around since the dinosaurs. And still kills a child every minute. I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child to a disease that is entirely preventable. We can eradicate malaria within our lifetime. These are the actual people that can do it.”
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Ana Lisa Valenciano is a senior scientist at GSK and works in drug discovery and tests lots of different compounds to see if any have activity against malaria and identify potential new medicines.
She focuses on trying to find compounds with particularly important characteristics for next generation malaria medicines like low propensity for drug resistance.
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Credit: Rankin
Louise Marston is senior research technician at Imperial College London/Target Malaria testing new gene drive lines and is the expert microinjector in the lab, injecting mosquito embryos with the genes.
This is a highly technical skill that very few people in the lab are able to master. Louise has previous experience in mammalian genetics and reproduction at the MRC and healthcare experience in the NHS.
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Credit: Rankin
Jo Salkeld is a doctor and clinical research fellow at the University of Oxford. She runs clinical trials of malaria vaccines and human challenge studies which involve deliberately infecting volunteers with malaria in order to study their response to infection.
She works closely with Professor Adrian Hill on the R21 malaria vaccine and is also investigating newer vaccines which target other stages of the malaria parasite lifecycle.
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Credit: Rankin
Georgia Whitton is a senior data scientist working in the Wellcome Sanger Institute's Genomic Surveillance Unit. She contributes to MalariaGEN, a collaborative global project to study the malaria parasite genome.
She combines genome sequence data from tens of thousands of samples to look for patterns with drug resistance, rapid test evasion, and vaccine effectiveness.
Georgia uses computational methods to translate sequence information into easy-to-interpret data and visualisations that can be used to inform decision-making in public health. She also played an important role in the Sanger Institute's Covid-19 genomic surveillance work.
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Credit: Rankin
Frederick Sarathchandra is a doctoral student at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Originally a mechanical and automotive acoustic engineer, he is now designing machines and experiments to understand what that annoying mosquito buzz is all about.
Using equipment and techniques that are normally used to develop cars of the future, he is exploring how we can acoustically identify different mosquito species, including the vectors of malaria by using their sound. After his PhD, he will develop a low-cost detection device for use by the communities most affected by mosquito-borne diseases including malaria.
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Credit: Rankin
Alicia Showering is a doctoral student at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She recently won a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Young Innovators Award.
Her studies focus on understanding why there are natural differences in how attractive humans are to mosquitos, with a particular focus on the contribution of the skin microbiome.
After her PhD, she aims to develop and bring to market an effective and sustainable mosquito repellent by utilising beneficial bacteria.
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Credit: Rankin
Eirini Tseligka is a pharmacology scientist at Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), where her role is to explore innovative solutions in malaria drug development by evaluating optimal drug combinations in vitro and in vivo to address drug resistance and achieve high efficacy.
Eirini also designs and interprets studies that assess how safe a drug is to ensure the delivery of well-tolerated antimalarials for at-risk populations, including pregnant and lactating women and young children.
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Credit: Rankin
Kallista Chan is a public health entomologist and epidemiologist in the Agriculture and Infectious Disease Group at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
She has led field research projects in Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania, where she focused on the links between irrigated rice and malaria in Africa. Specifically, she is looking for methods of rice cultivation that can minimise mosquito vector production.
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Credit: Rankin