Dr Julio Silva

I am a BRC Translational Research Fellow working on exploring how helminth parasite infections (and their derived products) influence the susceptibility and severity of fungal pathology associated with both life-threatening invasive infection and fungal asthma/allergic inflammation.

I completed my PhD in Immuno-parasitology at the Liverpool School of tropical medicine in 2019, investigating the immune mechanisms underpinning the development of Elephantiasis and Lymphatic Filariasis. Following a short Post-Doctoral Research Associate post were I continued my PhD work, I moved to University of Exeter in 2020, becoming a Post-Doctoral Research fellow in Dr Pete Cook's lab at MRC Centre for Medical Mycology. Here I interrogated the crucial role of airway myeloid immune cells, and the mechanisms they employ, to drive fungal asthma and allergic inflammation. In 2024 and 2025, I gained a FAILSAFE grant and my subsequent BRC Translational Research Fellowship to explore my own research.