Position

Reader in Parasitology

Research interests

Stephen Barker is an expert consultant to the international and national pharmaceutical industry on the design, execution and reporting of efficacy trials of pediculicides (OTC, over-the-counter, medicines for the treatment of pediculosis ie infection with head lice and/or body lice). Barker is also very interested in the efficacy of acaricides against ticks and insecticides against fleas.

Qualifications

PhD

Ten Most Significant Publications

1. Shao, R., Kirkness, E. & Barker S.C. (2009). Mitochondrial genomes of primate lice comprise multiple circular mini-chromosomes. Genome Research (in press).

2. Barker, S.C. & Murrell, A. (2008). Systematics and evolution of ticks with a list of valid genus and species names. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1 (pp 1-39) of hard cover book entitled "Ticks: biology, disease and control" edited by P. Nuttall & A. S. Bowman.

3. Barker, S.C., Whiting, M., Johnson, K. and Murrell, A. (2003). Phylogeny of the lice (Insecta, Phthiraptera) inferred from small subunit rRNA. Zoologica Scripta 32, 407-414.

4. Shao, R., Murrell, A., Dowton, M. and Barker, S.C. (2003). Rates of gene rearrangement and nucleotide substitution are correlated in the mitochondrial genomes of insects. Molecular Biology and Evolution 20, 1612-1619.

5. Murrell, A. and Barker, S.C. (2003). Synonymy of Boophilus Curtice, 1891 and Rhipicephalus Koch, 1844; Boophilus is a derived group within Rhipicephalus. Systematic Parasitology 56, 169-172.

6. Leo, N.P., Hughes, J.M., Yang, X., Poudel, S.K.S., Brogdon, W.G., & Barker, S.C. (2005). The head and body lice of humans are genetically distinct (Insecta: Phthiraptera: Pediculidae): evidence from double infestations. Heredity 95, 34-40.

7. McMeniman, C. J. & Barker, S. C. (2006). Transmission ratio distortion in the human body louse, Pediculus humanus (Insecta: Phthiraptera). Heredity 96, 63-68.

8. Shao, R. and Barker, S.C. (2003). The Highly Rearranged Mitochondrial Genome of the Plague Thrips, Thrips imaginis (Insecta: Thysanoptera): Convergence of Two Novel Gene Boundaries and an Extraordinary Arrangement of rRNA Genes. Molecular Biology and Evolution 20, 362-370.

9. Murrell, A., Campbell, N.J.H, and Barker, S.C. (2003). The value of idiosyncratic markers and conserved tRNA sequences from the mitochondrial genomes of hard ticks (Acari: Ixodida: Ixodidae) for phylogenetic inference. Systematic Biology 52, 296-310.

10. Shao, R., Campbell, N.J.H. and Barker, S.C. (2001). Numerous gene rearrangements in the mitochondrial genome of the wallaby louse, Heterodoxus macropus (Phthiraptera) Molecular Biology and Evolution 18, 858-865.