
Dyann Wirth

Dyann F. Wirth (born Dyann Lynn Fergus, January 31, 1951, Racine, Wisconsin) is an American immunologist currently the Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Wirth is one of the world's leading malariologists, dealing with how the genus "Plasmodium" has evolved in terms of population biology, drug resistance. and antigenicity. The Wirth laboratory combines the expertise of the Harvard School of Public Health, the Broad Institute, and international collaborators for malaria research and training in public health.
Wirth's lab identified the cytochrome B gene of the avian malaria species "Plasmodium gallinaceum" in 1989, as genetic study of the parasite was in its early days. In 1993 the labs of Wirth and Kamini Nirmala Mendis published the first successful use of the electroporation method to insert new DNA sequence into a malaria cell (also "Plasmodium gallinaceum").
She is a fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and they awarded her the Joseph Augustin LePrince Medal for contributions to malariology.